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ConceptBase.cc User Manual
Version 7.4 ¹

Abstract. ConceptBase.cc (in short ConceptBase) is a multi-user deductive object manager intended for conceptual modeling, metamodeling, and coordination in design environments. The system implements O-Telos, a dialect of Telos integrating deductive and object-oriented paradigms. It uniformly represents all information regardless of its abstraction level (data, class, meta class, meta meta class etc.) in a single data structure called P-facts. The powerful deductive query language is seamlessly integrated into the meta class hierarchy. Modeling is supported by meta classing, deduction and integrity checking, active rule specification, functional definition of computation, a module concept, and a rollback mechanism allowing to query past states of the database. These principles are combined orthogonally, e.g. deductive rules can be restricted to modules, formulated for meta classes, employed in active rules using functional definitions to compute properties, and be revised without overwriting the earlier definitions. The Java-based user interface offers an extensible palette of graphical, tabular, and textual user interfaces. The communication between the user clients and the object base is organized in a client-server architecture using TCP/IP. Further clients can be connected by an API documented in the ConceptBase programmers manual.

Contributions to this manual were made by: Lutz Bauer, Rainer Gallersdörfer, Michael Gebhardt, Matthias Jarke, Manfred Jeusfeld, Thomas List, Hans Nissen, Christoph Quix, René Soiron, and Martin Staudt.

Major contributions to the source code of ConceptBase were made by: Lutz Bauer (module system), Rainer Gallersdörfer (object store), Manfred Jeusfeld (CB server, logic foundation, function component), Eva Krüger (integrity component), Thomas List (object store), Hans Nissen (module system), Christoph Quix (CB server, view component), Christoph Radig (object store), René Soiron (optimizer), Martin Staudt (CB server, query component), Kai von Thadden (query component), and Hua Wang (anwer formatting).

Additional contributions came from Masoud Asady, Markus Baumeister, Ulrich Bonn, Stefan Eherer, Michael Gebhardt, Dagmar Genenger, Michael Gocek, Rainer Hermanns, David Kensche, André Klemann, Rainer Langohr, Tobias Latzke, Xiang Li, Yong Li, Farshad Lashgari, Andreas Miethsam, Martin Pöschmann, Achim Schlosser, Tobias Schöneberg, Claudia Welter, Thomas Wenig, and others.

• Contents
• Introduction
  • Background and history
  • The architecture of ConceptBase.cc
  • Hardware and software requirements
  • Overview of this manual
  • Differences to earlier versions
  • License terms
  • Disclaimer and rights
• O-Telos by ConceptBase.cc
  • Frame and network representation
  • Rules and constraints
  • Query classes
  • View definitions
  • Functions
  • Query evaluation strategies
  • Datalog queries and rules
• Answer Formats for Queries
  • Basic definitions
  • Constructs in answer formats
  • Parameterized answer formats
  • File type of answer formats
• Active rules
  • Definition of ECArules
  • Examples
  • Optimization of ECA rules
  • Limitations of the current implementation
• The Module System
  • Definition of modules
  • Switching between module contexts
  • Using nested modules
  • Exporting and importing objects
  • Setting user home modules
  • Limiting access to modules
  • Listing the module content
  • Saving and loading module sources
  • Server-side materialization of query results
• The ConceptBase.cc Server
  • CBserver parameters
  • The tabling subsystem
  • Database persistency
  • The UNTELL operation
  • Memory consumption and performance
• The CBShell utility
  • Syntax
  • Options
  • Commands
  • Positional parameters
  • Executable CBShell scripts
  • CBShell scripts within regular shell scripts
  • CBShell in a pipe
• The ConceptBase.cc Usage Environment
  • CBIva
  • ConceptBase.cc graph editor
  • An example session with ConceptBase
  • Usage as applet
  • Configuration file
• References
• Syntax Specifications
  • Syntax specifications for Telos frames
  • Syntax of the rule and constraint language
  • Syntax of active rules
  • Terminal symbols
  • Syntax specifications for SML fragments
• O-Telos Axioms
• Graphical Types
  • The graphical type model
  • The standard graphical types
  • Customizing the graphical types
• Examples
  • Example model: The Employee model
  • A Telos modeling example - ER diagrams
• Predefined Query Classes
  • Query classes and generic query classes
  • Functions
  • Builtin query classes
• CBserver Plug-Ins
  • Defining the plug-in
  • Calling the plug-in
  • Programming interface for the plug-ins

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Copyright (C) 1987-2013 by The ConceptBase Team. All rights reserved. See link for details. This report is published by its authors via http://conceptbase.cc. You can use this report for private and academic purposes.

This document was translated from L^AT_EX by H^EV^EA.