Is GUI Programming a Database Research Problem?

Nita Goyal, Charles Hoch, Ravi Krishnamurthy, Brian Meckler, Michael Suckow: Is GUI Programming a Database Research Problem? SIGMOD Conference 1996: 517-528

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/sigmod/GoyalHKMS96,
  author    = {Nita Goyal and
               Charles Hoch and
               Ravi Krishnamurthy and
               Brian Meckler and
               Michael Suckow},
  editor    = {H. V. Jagadish and
               Inderpal Singh Mumick},
  title     = {Is GUI Programming a Database Research Problem?},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1996 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on
               Management of Data, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 4-6, 1996},
  publisher = {ACM Press},
  year      = {1996},
  pages     = {517-528},
  ee        = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/233269.233369, db/conf/sigmod/GoyalHKMS96.html},
  crossref  = {DBLP:conf/sigmod/96},
  bibsource = {DBLP, http://dblp.uni-trier.de}
}

Abstract

Programming nontrivial GUI applications is currently an arduous task. Just as the use of a declarative language simplified the programming of database applications, we ask whether we can do the same for GUI programming? Can we then import a large body of knowledge from database research? We answer these questions by describing our experience in building nontrivial GUI applications initially using C++ programming and subsequently using Logic++, a higher Horn clause logic language on complex objects with object-oriented features. We abstract a GUI application as a set of event handlers. Each event handler can be conceptualized as a transition from the old screen/program state to a new screen/program state. We use a data centric view of the screen/program state (i.e. every entity on the screen corresponds to proxy datum in the program) and express each event handler as a query dependent update, albeit a complicated one. To express such complicated updates we use Logic++. The proxy data are expressed as derived views that are materialized on the screen. Therefore, the system must be active in maintaining these materialized views. Consequently, each event handler is conceptually an update followed by a fixpoint computation of the proxy data. Based on our experience in building the GUI system, we observe that many database techniques such as view maintenance, active DB, concurrency control, recovery, optimization as well as language concepts such as higher order logic are useful in the context of GUI programming.

Copyright © 1996 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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H. V. Jagadish, Inderpal Singh Mumick (Eds.): Proceedings of the 1996 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 4-6, 1996. ACM Press 1996

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References

[BH95]: ...
[GH*96]: ...
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[NT89]: Shamim A. Naqvi, Shalom Tsur: A Logical Language for Data and Knowledge Bases. Computer Science Press 1989, ISBN 0-7167-8200-6
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[WC96]: Jennifer Widom, Stefano Ceri (Eds.): Active Database Systems: Triggers and Rules For Advanced Database Processing. Morgan Kaufmann 1996, ISBN 1-55860-304-2
Contents
[Ull89]: Jeffrey D. Ullman: Principles of Database and Knowledge-Base Systems, Volume II. Computer Science Press 1989, ISBN 0-7167-8162-X
Contents
[vZ94]: ...
[ZK96]: ...