CSDL: A Conceptual Schema Definition Language for the Design of Data Base Applications

A language to support the incremental design of the conceptual schemata of data bases is presented. Abstractions are expressed in terms of high-evel constructs and operations on these abstractions allow the definition of other abstractions. Both abstractions and operations on them are totally independent from the underlying internal representation of the schema, which is created consistently by applying the operators of the language. In addition, the language offers a. number of support facilities for type checking of relationships and graphical displays of the conceptual schemata for easier understanding.