An object oriented approach to represent behavioural knowledge in heterogeneous information systems

Abstract

This paper addresses the topic of data and knowledge exchange and sharing in heterogeneous, autonomous and distributed information systems. It shows the maturity of object oriented technology for describing and structuring complex data models. It suggests to use a meta-model which implements a general model whose instances represent particular data models. This meta-model is implemented using an object oriented data modelling language, namely the EXPRESS language. We present two examples of meta-models allowing to exchange Entity-Relationship data models and procedural knowledge. Finally, this paper illustrates the technique we use in order to generate source code, in a target programming language, implementing these data models.