Temporally oriented data definitions: Managing schema evolution in temporally oriented databases

摘要

A simplifying — yet unrealistic — assumption widely held throughout the research of Temporally Oriented Data Models (TODM) is that the associated schema never changes. The implications of allowing data structures to evolve over time within a TODM and related databases are examined in this paper, and key issues and concepts are identified. Specifically, Temporally Oriented Data Definition (TODD) raises questions with respect to (1) the evolution of meanings in databases, (2) the nature of the temporal prevalence of database schema, and (3) the general principles that may guide the implementation of a TODM database with TODD.