Data structures and organisation: Special problems in scientific applications

✍ Scribed by Brian J. Read

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 482 KB
• Volume: 57
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-4655
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-4655(89)90206-3

✦ Synopsis

In this paper we discuss and offer answers to the following questions: What, really, are the benefits of databases in physics? Are scientific databases essentially different from conventional ones? What are the drawbacks of a commercial database management system for use with scientific data? Do they outweigh the advantages? Do database systems have adequate graphics facilities, or is a separate graphics package necessary? SQL as a standard language has deficiencies, but what are they for scientific data in particular? Indeed, is the relational model appropriate anyway? Or, should we turn to object oriented databases?