Database Programming in Machiavelli - a Polymorphic Language with Static Type Inference

Machiavelli is a polymorphically typed programming language in the spirit of ML, but supports an extended method of type inferencing that makes its polymorphism more general and appropriate for database applications. In particular, a function that selects a field f of a records is polymorphic in the sense that it can be applied to any record which contains a field f with the appropriate type. When combined with a set data type and database operations including join and projection, this provides a natural medium for relational database programming. Moreover, by implementing database objects as reference types and generating the appropriate views — sets of structures with “identity” — we can achieve a degree of static type checking for object-oriented databases.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1989
• Where: SIGMOD
• Authors: Atsushi Ohori, Peter Buneman, Val Tannen
• Keywords: Appropriate Type, Database, Relational Database Programming, Set Data Type, SIGMOD 1989