A purely relational approach appears to have been abandoned by most DBMS vendors. They refer to new functions and features as "relational extensions" or "object-relational". Some have gone so far as to declare the relational model dead. Leading authorities and vendors explain their positions, and attendees have an opportunity to make some sense of the confusion. Discover answers to such questions as: What are relational extensions? What is "object-relational"? What are the dominant directions products are taking? Does this mean relational is to be abandoned and, if so, at what cost to today's product users? What is being done to preserve investments in training and technology?
David McGoveran, President
Alternative Technologies
Tuesday, 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.
Most of the relational DBMS vendors have decided that building and marketing a relational DBMS will no longer succeed. Object DBMSs, the touted successor, have not gained acceptance at the rate relational DBMSs did. Now an evolutionary approach is being taken, with object-relational, extended relational, and universal servers all the rage. This talk presents these approaches, and examines the technical and marketing motivations behind them. The hype and reality behind important issues are discussed, including:
Michael Stonebraker, Chief Technology Officer
Informix Software, Inc.
Tuesday, 3:00 p.m.
It is clear that the next great wave of database system technology is the movement from Relational systems to Object-Relational systems. However, to complement this next great wave, a similar movement must occur in the tools area. This talk focuses on needed enhancements to 3GL interfaces, 4GLs, data base design tools, data mining tools, and OLAP tools. In addition, it explores opportunities for new tools with new paradigms that result from the next great wave. Examples of new frontier tools will be included.
George Schussel, Founder and CEO
DCI
Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.
There’s no way to build client side applications without embracing object-oriented approaches. Applet approaches and components are fundamental enabling technologies. If you want to manage complex data such as maps and video, object functionality is also required in the DBMS. Current RDBMSs don't provide support for objects. How are you going to keep your OLTP and department databases and, in addition, support the new data types? It depends on the vendor you choose. This session reviews the fundamental issues that must be mastered to have a reasonable database strategy in place for the new paradigm. The talk closes with a review of the nastier side of objects.
Jacob Stein, Strategic Planning Manager for Object Technology
Sybase, Inc.
Wednesday, 9:30 a.m.
The evolution of Relational DBMSs to Object-Relational DBMSs may well be the largest and most difficult innovation in database management since the introduction of the relational model and the advent of client/server computing. We examine the requirements, solutions, promises, pitfalls, visions and hallucinations surrounding this evolution in database management.
Chris Date, Independent Consultant
Wednesday, 2:00 p.m.
The speaker describes the three-valued logic approach to missing information ("nulls") in depth. Both the underlying theory and SQL’s attempt to implement that theory are described. In particular, the speaker shows why the approach is a disastrously bad one and sketches an alternative approach, based on "special values." Attendees should have a basic familiarity with the ideas of the relational model and/or SQL.
Nelson Mattos, Senior Technical Staff Member
Software Solutions Division, IBM Corporation
Thursday, 8:30 a.m.
All of the major database vendors are claiming extensions to their relational database engines in support of objects. Yet there are major differences in what constitutes object support and how it is provided in each of these systems. Mr. Mattos, who is responsible for SQL standards and object extensions in DB2 for IBM's Software Solution Division, discusses the problems that extensible relational engines are designed to solve and describes the key features that a relational database engine must provide in order to deliver robust and usable "universal" server technology.
Dr. Won Kim, Founder & Chief Technology Officer
UniSQL
Thursday, 1:30 p.m.
UniSQL ushered in the era for object-relational database technology in March 1992. Now object-relational database technology is recognized as the basis of the post-relational universal (common) database servers. The object-relational technology offers a foundation for database extensibility and unification of multiple existing heterogeneous databases. This presentation describes the overall architecture required to interrelate heterogeneous data as one without gateways, conversion, or import/export utilities.
Dr. Larry Harris, CEO
Linguistic Technology Corporation
Thursday, 2:30 p.m.
Search engines can't see the contents of relational databases. While relational databases currently comprise a small percentage of the data available on the Internet, they make up the predominant portion of data available on corporate intranets. This is one of the reasons it’s hard to make effective use of relational databases using the Internet protocol; it makes it hard for users to find the right information. Without knowledge of the database structure and the SQL language, it can be virtually impossible to browse through a relational database to find the specific information you want. This talk describes how these two important problems Ð finding the right database and then browsing it Ð can actually be solved using real world examples and users.
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