Pasta-3's Graphical Query Language: Direct Manipulation, Cooperative Queries, Full Expressive Power

Graphical Direct Manipulation (GrDM) query languagesare characterized and positioned with respect to traditional textual query languages. After a brief survey of the current stateof the art, the Pasta-3GrDM query language is presented,with emphasison three featuresthat make significant new contributions to this field: (1) its GrDM basis (query editing through clicking and dragging of an iconic representationof the query expression),(2) its cooperative environment (handy values, automatic path completion, edit-and-reevaluateloop), and (3) its expressive power (arbitrarily complex conditions, recursive queries, logical variables and quantification, subqueries, mixing in Prolog code). Severalexamplestaken directly from the nearly completeimplementation are discussedin detail.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1989
• Where: VLDB
• Authors: Michel Kuntz, Rainer Melchert
• Keywords: Database, Pasta-3GrDM Query Language, Query Language, Textual Query Languages, VLDB 1989