The Starburst active database rule system

This paper describes our development of the Starburst Rule System, an active database rules facility integrated into the Starburst extensible relational database sys-tem at the IBM Almaden Research Center. The Starburst rule language is based on arbitrary database state transitions rather than tuple- or statement-level changes, yield-ing a clear and exible execution semantics. The rule system has been implemented completely. Its rapid implementation was facilitated by the extensibility features of Starburst, and rule management and rule processing is integrated into all aspects of database processing. Index terms: active database systems, database production rules, extensible database systems, expert database systems