Multi-paradigm query interface to an object-oriented database

The object-oriented paradigm has a number of widely recognised strengths when applied to data management, but the increased complexity of actual systems compared with their relational predecessors often means that such databases are less readily accessible to nonprogrammers than relational systems. A number of proposals have been made for textual, form-based and graph-based query interfaces to object-oriented databases, but it is clear that a single approach cannot be considered to be the best, given the wide range of potential user groups, application domains and tasks. The paper presents a query interface to an object-oriented database which supports alternative user-level query paradigms in a fully integrated environment, thereby enabling different categories of user to select a preferred interface paradigm from a list of options. Furthermore, the interface enables users to examine queries written in one query interface using any of the other interface paradigms, which is useful for sharing queries in the multi-paradigm context, and for helping users familiar with one approach to learn another. The system has been prototyped using the ADAM object-oriented database system, and an experimental comparison of different interaction modes has been conducted. © 1995.