JLRef: IVPR\COOL\NotationForDMTableOfContents.txt

This note is an outline of NotationForDataModels.txt, which explains the 
reasons that motivate the data model drawing conventions supported by the 
block diagram editor COOL-BDE and the code generation tool COOL-GEN.. 
It also makes a case for transforming datasets to Third Normal Form (3NF).  
It remains to be seen if any of this is relevant to metadata for Weave.

The full explanation for these items (a technical supplement to 
20100907MetadataMeetingNotes.txt) is located at
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/COOL-GEN/NotationForDataModels.txt
(word-wrapps OK but need to cut and paste the hyperlinks)
I also emailed it to you-all. (RJLRef:
IVPR\COOL\NotationForDataModelsWrapped.txt).

The full explanation for these items (a technical supplement to 
20100907MetadataMeetingNotes.txt) is located at
http::/www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/COOL-GEN/NotationForDataModelsWrapped.txt
I also emailed it to you-all. (RJLRef:
IVPR\COOL\NotationForDataModelsWrapped.txt).

   I. 	Benefits for Presentation
  II. 	Benefits for Implementation
 III 	Desirable COOL framework extensions
 IV. 	Online Links

I separate  (I) presentation advantges and (II) implementation advantages. These
are followed by (III) a list of desirable framework extensions The last section
(IV) is online links to info on my home page and to David Hay's.site.

I Front-end Presentation Benefits

I(1) Notation is a proper subset of  most diagram styles

I(2) High-density models are possible using mnemonic data-type abbreviations

I(3) Consistent use of the directed graph pattern in data models

I(4)  Notation allows mixed  use of both an arrow head or tail ('Crowsfoot').

I(5) Chen's 'diamond' symbol is superfluous

I(6) Multiplicity can be represented graphically and/or textually

I(7) Clear contrast between inheritance and associative links.

I(8) First Normal Form Diagrams

I(9) Reverse engineering risks

I(10) One-to-many links have only meta-attributes


II. Back-end Implementation Benefits
=============================

II(1) Support for automatic code generation

II(2)  1NF database (no list- or set-valued attributes)

II(3) Consistent coding conventions across all data and metadata.
 
II(4) A common version-controlled table format (line-oriented ASCII text

II (5) Support for  data model evolution


III. Desirable COOL framework extensions
================================
III(1) Augment GEN to produce XML inport/export format

III(2 ) Extend metadata to support Views (see IV(4))

II( 3) Extend metadata to define Candidate Keys (see IV(4)

III(4)  Augment GENCPP with object fkey and simple value subclasses of TA

III(5) Support additional non-key data types declarable in  TA.

III(6) Support  'tokenized'  multiline text and generate concordances

III(7) Support Namespace extensions to metadata and the GEN API

III(8) Support candidate, preferred, and alternate keys

II(9) Extract metadata from Block Diagrams:


IV Online References:
================
IV(1) A list of API user guides for CHGEN versions V8-13 is  at
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/COOL-GEN/genDocsList.txt

IV(2) A Users Guide to BDE is at
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/COOL-BDE/BDE_UG2000/bdeUG_2000.htm

IV(3) Slides showing the evolution of BDE's graphic data model are at
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/COOL-BDE/BDEUG_2005DataModels.ppt

IV(4) For some metrics and pairings of GEN internal subroutines
and the pr_* routines which they generate,  see
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/COOL-GEN/chgenv12r1.doc

IV(5) For details of the metadata content produced by CHGEN and how it is used,
see the Data Modeling Tutorial at
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/DataModels2htm/index.htm

IV(6) Possible extensions to BDE's data model for subschema views, candidate
keys, and namespaces 
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/COOL-GEN/TTTA_metadata_jk_rl.ppt

Links to many David Hay papers are at http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/DavidHay

IV(7) I recommend Hay's comparison of alternate data modeling styles: 
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~lechner/DavidHay/DHay_ComparingDModTechniques.pdf  [and
.htm] (52 pp)