DEDUCTIVE DATABASES - WHERE TO NOW?

Abstract

Deductive databases result from the integration of relational database and logic programming techniques. It combines the benefits of these two approaches, such as representational and operational uniformity, deductive power, efficient secondary storage access, etc. However, significant problems remain inherent in this synthesis. There are three broad areas where problems are apparent. The first problem area is how to naturally represent objects, complex objects and inheritance information. The second problem area is how to naturally deal with higher-order features in deductive databases. The last is the area of updates. The paper discusses these problems, surveys some of the attempts that have been made towards solving these problems and prepares an integrated framework for solving them.