Database updates in the event calculus

AbstractThis paper investigates a special case of the event calculus, concerned with database updates. It discusses the way relational databases, historical databases, modal logic, the situation calculus, and case semantics deal with database updates and compares the event calculus with the situation calculus in detail. It argues that the event calculus can overcome the computational aspects of the frame problem in the situation calculus and that it can be implemented with an efficiency approaching that of destructive assignment in relational databases