Tab-trees: A CASE tool for the design of extended tabular systems

Abstract

Tabular Systems constitute a particular form of rule-based systems. They follow the pattern of Relational Databases and Attribu-tive Decision Tables. In Extended Tabular Systems non-atomic values of attributes are allowed. In order to assure safe, reliable and efficient per-formance of such systems, analysis and verification of selected qualitative properties such as completeness, consistency and determinism should be carried out. However, verification of them after the design of a system is both costly and late. In this paper another solution is proposed. A graph-ical CASE-like tool supporting the design of Extended Tabular Systems and providing verification possibilities is presented. The tool uses a new rule specification paradigm: the so-called tab-trees, covering the advan-tages of Attributive Decision Tables and Decision Trees. In the system the verification stage is moved into the design process. The background theory and the idea of tab-trees are outlined and presentation of a prac-tical tool, the Osiris System, is carried out. © 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.