Implementing version support for complex objects

摘要

New applications in the area of office information systems, computer aided design and manufacturing make new demands upon database management systems. Among others highly structured objects and their history have to be represented and manipulated. The paper discusses some general problems concerning the access and storage of complex objects with their versions and the solutions developed within the AIM/II project. Queries related to versions are distinguished in ASOF queries (asking information valid at a certain moment) and WALK-THROUGH-TIME (WTT) queries (obtaining trend information concerning a certain period). In the paper some new algorithms to handle such queries are presented. A brief analysis gives an indication about the performance of query processing in historical databases.