Integration of database management with an object-oriented programming language

Abstract

Alltalk is an object-oriented programming and database system, based on Smalltalk, being developed at Eastman Kodak Company to support development of advanced information systems. It provides permanence to Smalltalk objects without adding a database sub-language, new language syntax, classes, or methods to Smalltalk. In this paper we describe problems we encountered in integrating Smalltalk with database management and discuss our solutions to these problems. We believe the problems we identify are of a general nature and would arise in augmenting most any object-oriented language with database support.