DIAL: A Programming Language for Data Intensive Applications.

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/sigmod/HammerB80,
  author    = {Michael Hammer and
               B. Berkowitz},
  editor    = {Peter P. Chen and
               R. Clay Sprowls},
  title     = {DIAL: A Programming Language for Data Intensive Applications},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1980 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on
               Management of Data, Santa Monica, California, May 14-16, 1980},
  publisher = {ACM Press},
  year      = {1980},
  pages     = {75-92},
  ee        = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/582250.582263, db/conf/sigmod/HammerB80.html},
  crossref  = {DBLP:conf/sigmod/80},
  bibsource = {DBLP, http://dblp.uni-trier.de}
}

Abstract

DIAL is a problem-oriented and high-level programming language oriented towards database applications. It integrates into a unified framework database primitives and computational facilities, so that an application programmer will deal with a single coherent language. The design of DIAL is based on the premise that in order to have a meaningful impact on the construction of application software, a database programming language should eschew generality and focus on what is unique about the application domain in question. To that end, DIAL seeks to embody features that naturally express the most common and frequently recurring patterns encountered in database applications programs.

A number of its features distinguish DIAL from other contemporary related efforts. Data description plays a primary role in DIAL, in that a substantial amount of application semantics is expressed in the database schema rather than in procedure definitions; to achieve this end, DIAL employs a higher-level data model (the SDM) as its data description mechanism. Facilities for conducting user-system dialogues are also embedded in the language. Specialized control structures are provided to allow for succinct and direct expression of the algorithmic structure of procedures that utilize the database. High-level mechanisms (called controllers) are used to specify an application system's required behavior in the face of multiple concurrent users and aborted transactions.

Copyright © 1980 by the ACM, Inc., used by permission. Permission to make digital or hard copies is granted provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or direct commercial advantage, and that copies show this notice on the first page or initial screen of a display along with the full citation.

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Referenced by

1. Yuh-Ming Shyy, Javier Arroyo, Stanley Y. W. Su, Herman Lam: The Design and Implementation of K: A High-Level Knowledge-Base Programming Language of OSAM*.KBMS. VLDB J. 5(3): 181-195(1996)
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   Contents
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8. Walter Dosch, Gianfranco Mascari, Martin Wirsing: On the Algebraic Specification of Databases. VLDB 1982: 370-385
9. Michael Hammer, Dennis McLeod: Database Description with SDM: A Semantic Database Model. ACM Trans. Database Syst. 6(3): 351-386(1981)