ConceptBase 6.1.2 (metadatabase system) released

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Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2004 08:44:22 CST

Dear all,

the deductive object manager ConceptBase 6.1.2 has been released
free-of-charge for non-commercial usage! No time to
read text below? Then directly download the software from
http://www-i5.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/CBdoc/

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ConceptBase is a system for meta modeling based on a deductive object manager.
ConceptBase has been in use since 1988 and is being distributed since about
1990. In the last two years the ConceptBase Team worked to add more
functionality, to support more platforms, and to make it perform faster. As a
result, ConceptBase now

  * runs on multiple platforms including Linux (i386), Windows XP/2000, and Solaris
    (Sparc and i386); you can take the system on your laptop or install it on a
    powerful server;

  * includes a Java-based graph editor whose node and link types can be freely
    configured; the graph editor can also be used to update the object base;

  * evaluates queries between 3 and 20 times faster depending on the type of
    query; recursive queries can enjoy an even more dramatic speed-up; besides
    the increased performance, the query engine now supports dynamic
    stratification;

  * provides access protection for object base modules; you can use the system in
    a multi-user environment and assign users to their individual workspaces;
    this feauture is useful for teaching scenarios but also in cases you manage
    multiple application with ConceptBase as a shared data repository; access
    protection policies are user-definable as query classes.

Besides these improvements, we have corrected dozens of errors, enhanced the
compiler for meta-class-level logical formulas, and increased the flexibility of
queries as parameters of other queries. We are convinced that ConceptBase is
useful for

  * meta modeling, in particular the design of new modeling languages

  * advanced application design, in particular when the relational data model is
    too inflexible

  * serving as model repository for managing multiple interrelated models

  * analyzing large models by means of queries

For more details on the capabilities, see our introductory site at
http://conceptbase.cc

The unique advantage of ConceptBase over similar systems is the extreme
simplicity of its underlying O-Telos data model. O-Telos uses a single data
structure called P-objects for all factual information (objects, attributes,
classes, meta classes, specializations, instantiations) and provides virtually
unlimited flexibility by its Datalog-based rule language. Rules, constraints and
queries can range over any type of object, be it an instance, a class, a meta
class, a meta meta class and so forth. The combination of the uniform data model
with the logical language allows to capture the semantics of link types such as
transitivity, reflexivity etc. by user-defined formulas. Even the semantics of
modeling language constructs, e.g. the concept of cardinality in entity-
relationship diagrams or the key property of the relational data model, can be
captured in ConceptBase.

ConceptBase has been developed at the Technical University of Aachen (Informatik V,
Prof. Dr. M. Jarke) in Germany, in co-operation with the University of
Tilburg (CRISM/Infolab, Dr. M. Jeusfeld) in The Netherlands. The system is free-
of- charge for non-commercial usage. Release 6.1.2 can now be downloaded via

            http://www-i5.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/CBdoc/

See instructions there on how to register a ConceptBase installation. Registered
users can obtain access to the CB-Forum featuring additional software (e.g.
preview releases of forthcoming ConceptBase versions), an extensive how-to
section and a discussion section.

We hope that this new release is useful for the scientific community!

Kind greetings!

Aachen and Tilburg, December 2004

-- The ConceptBase Team
represented by
Matthias Jarke, Manfred Jeusfeld, Christoph Quix

PS: Thanks go to all who have contributed to the realization of ConceptBase. We
particularily thank the designers of Telos (John Mylopoulos, Alex Borgida,
Manolis Koubarakis, Sol Greenspan, and others) and the numerous colleagues who
worked on extensions of the system. We can't name them all here. Special thanks
go to Martin Staudt who has been heading the ConceptBase team for several years
and who initiated many of the now-realized functions. Rainer Gallersdörfer and
Thomas List did a tremendous job in implementing the dedicated object store.
Rene Soiron realized the meta formula compiler and the cost-based query
optimizer. Finally, Hans Nissen introduced the module sub-system which proves to
be an increasingly useful tool for managing large object bases.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Christoph Quix      Email: quix@i5.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
Informatik V        http://www-i5.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~quix/
RWTH Aachen         Tel: +49 +241 / 80-21511
Ahornstr. 55        Fax: +49 +241 / 80-22321
52056 Aachen        Germany
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