MICRO Relational Database Management System: Difference between revisions

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'''Micro''' was one of the earliest set theoretic/relational [[database management system]]s.<ref>[http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1095495.1095500 "A set theoretic data structure and retrieval language"], William R. Hershey and Carol H. Easthope, Papers from the Session on Data Structures, Spring Joint Computer Conference, May 1972 in ''ACM SIGIR Forum'', Volume 7, Issue 4 (December 1972), pp. 45-55, DOI=10.1145/1095495.1095500, Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA</ref> It's combinedmajor underpinnings and algorithms were based on the Set Theoretic model of David Childs of the University of Michigan's COMCOMP (Man-Machine Communication) Project. It was also influenced to a lesser extent by the [[Relational database|relational model]] later made famous by [[Edgar F. Codd]] anda [[Michaelresearch Stonebraker]]scientist ofat theIBM, [[University of Michigan|University of Michigan's]] Database Research Group<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/362384.362685 "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks"], E.F. Codd, Communications of the ACM, volume 13, issue 6 (June 1970), pp.77–387, doi= 10.1145/362384.362685</ref>. It withused a natural language interface which allowed non-programmers to use the system.<ref>MICRO: Information Management System (Version 5.0) Reference Manual, M.A. Kahn, D.L. Rumelhart, and B.L. Bronson, October 1977, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations (ILIR), University of Michigan</ref>

Micro permitted users with little programming experience to define, enter, interrogate, manipulate and update collections of data in a relatively unstructured and unconstrained environment. An interactive system, Micro was powerful in terms of the complexity of requests which could be made by users without prior programming language experience.<ref>"[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2581360/pdf/procascamc00021-0314.pdf Use of a Relational Database to Support Clinical Research: Application in a Diabetes Program]", Diane Lomatch, M.P.H., Terry Truax, M.S., Peter Savage, M.D., Diabetes Center Unit, MDRTC, University of Michigan, 1981</ref> Micro includes basic statistical computations such as mean, variance, frequency, median, etc. If more rigorous statistical analysis were desired, the data from a Micro database could be used with Michigan Interactive Data Analysis System (MIDAS), a statistical analysis package available under the [[Michigan Terminal System]] (MTS).<ref>"[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2245120/pdf/procascamc00019-0674.pdf Converting from Traditional File Structures to Database Management Systems: A Powerful Tool for Nursing Management"], Yvonne Marie Abdoo, Ph.D., R.N, Wayne State University College of Nursing, 1987</ref>

MicroImplemetation wasof originallyMicro implementedbegan in 19681970 at the University of Michigan's Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations (ILIR) and ran under the [[Michigan Terminal System]], the time-sharing system developed at U-M. It became thewas first large scale relational database management system to be used in production. Organizations such asfor the [[Unitedstudy Statesand Departmentanalysis of Labor|USmicro-statistics Departmentcontained of Labor]],in the [[United States EnvironmentalCensus Protectiondata Agency|USbase; Environmentalhence Protectionthe Agency]] and researchers from [[Universityname of Alberta]], the [[University of Michigan]], and [[Wayne State University]] used it to manage very large scale databasessystem. Micro continued to run in production until 1998.

The underlying data model and retrieval alorithms were deeply influenced by David Child's Set Theoretic Data Model. Although the underlying model was based on set theory, the user interface utilized a query language subsequently used in relational database management systems. It became the first large scale set theoretic/relational database management system to be used in production. Organizations such as the [[United States Department of Labor|US Department of Labor]], the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|US Environmental Protection Agency]] and researchers from [[University of Alberta]], the [[University of Michigan]], [[Wayne State University]], the [[University of Newcastle on Tyne]], and [[Durham University]] used it to manage very large scale databases. Micro continued to run in production until 1998.

== References ==

== References ==

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