Version Support for Engineering Database Systems

In engineering applications, multiple copies of object descriptions have to coexist in a single database. This paper proposes a scheme that enables users to explicitly deal with these object versions. After introducing a basic version model, the problem of “rerouting” interobject references upon the creation of new versions is solved by providing generic references and user-specific environments. Finally, logical version clusters are introduced that allow for the meaningful grouping of versions. The paper concludes with some remarks on implementation and a comparison with other approaches. © 1988, IEEE. All rights reserved.