Abstract
Temporal Databases have developed to the point where there is a proposed query language, TSQL2, [1] and a database implementation, Multical, [2] based on this language. It is now appropriate to review the power and relevance of this approach. It is accepted that TSQL2 is appropriate for a number of types of temporal query. This paper examines TSQL2 with respect to the requirements of an application area to see how well it can be applied to solving the problems with temporal querying in this area. The weaknesses of TSQL2 in this application area are identified and an alternative graphical query language, called GEST is presented to overcome these weaknesses. GEST has the same power as TSQL2, but improves on it, in three ways: it is based on a WIMP interface; it can cope with incomplete temporal information; and it can also support a variety of temporal constructs that are difficult to implement in TSQL2.
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© 1995 British Computer Society
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Harris, W., Gray, W.A. (1995). Using Temporal Constructs in Temporal Databases. In: Clifford, J., Tuzhilin, A. (eds) Recent Advances in Temporal Databases. Workshops in Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3033-8_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3033-8_8
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