An object oriented approach to data persistence

Abstract

A model for extending programming languages to support data persistence in an object-oriented paradigm is presented. The method is based on the introduction in the language of a data structure called “Data Environment”. The concept of Data Environment represents a generalization of the concept of file. That is, a Data Environment is a special data type of the language supporting persistence. Data Environments are “envelopes” of persistent, user-defined data structures. In particular, the data structures that may be defined within a Data Environment include references. Data Environments have been experimented with Modula-2. In this paper, we analyze their use in other programming languages and the role played in a more general framework, including distributed systems.