Subject: OBST3-3.5 available!
From: a Structured and Open Environment <[email-masked]>
Date: 10 Feb 1994 19:59:37 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.databases.object,comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.os.linux.announce

OBST3-3.5 is now available at ftp.fzi.de under /pub/OBST/OBST3-3.5.
Patches to the last version are available under /pub/OBST/OBST3-3.5/patches.

We made mainly the following changes (a more detailed
description can be found in the README.changes files of the distributions).
- OBST:
  - Changes in configuration
  - Bug fixes, most notably a bug which caused the schema compiler to fail
    with the error message 'ERROR: schema does not exist'.
- tclOBST:
  - changes in README only
- STF:
  - minimal change in generated structurer
- tutorial
  - unchanged except for the name of the distribution file

Except for OBST there were only minor changes (mostly in the READMEs).
If you have a working installation of OBST3-3.4 and related tools, we do
recommend to re-install just OBST3-3.4.
You might want to look at the patch files in /pub/OBST/OBST3-3.5/patches
in case of doubt.

The installation of OBST requires a C++ compiler
(GNU g++ 2.3.3/2.4.5/2.5.5, or AT&T 2.1/3.01).

The OBST graphical tools run under the X-Windows system (X11R5 and R4). 
Installation has been tested by us for SunOS4.1.3, Solaris 2 and LINUX.

There are mailing lists for announcing OBST enhancements, new versions, 
porting hints, etc. as well as for exchanging experiences with other 
OBST users (see below).

Best regards and happy OBST programming. 

   The OBST Team

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

README of OBST3-3.5
-------------------

Version: OBST3-3.5
Date:    2/2/94

The OBject system of STONE --- OBST
-----------------------------------

The persistent object management system OBST was developed by
Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI) as a contribution to the STONE
project (supported by grant no. ITS8902A7 from the BMFT, i.e. the
German Ministry for Research).

OBST was originally designed to serve as the common persistent
object store for the tools of an software engineering environment.

Data Model
---------

The OBST data model can be characterized by the following properties:

 * Schema definition language syntactically similar to C++
 * Support of multiple inheritance
 * Generic classes
 * Abstract classes and methods
 * Distinction between public, protected, and private methods
 * Redefinition of methods
 * Overloading of methods

Schemas and Containers
----------------------

Schemas are compiled by the OBST schema compiler. The compilation
results are instances of classes of the meta schema. From these
instances in a next step interfaces to different programming languages
can be generated. At present the C++ language binding is implemented.

Objects are stored in so-called containers. The container an object
belongs to is determined at the time of object creation and fixed
throughout the object's lifetime. Containers are the units of 
clustering, synchronization, and recovery. Objects can be referenced
by other objects across container boundaries.

Incremental Loading
-------------------

OBST provides a mechanism to incrementally load methods. This enables
programs to deal with objects whose type is defined after the program 
itself has been developed. This is useful in systems that provide for 
inheritance and it supports schema evolution. We used it e.g. for
programs that interpret the object base and call methods of the
found objects (for example the below mentioned browser).

Prototype
---------

Since end 1990 the first prototype of OBST is available and is shipped
to interested universities and research institutions. The current
version is publicly available via FTP (see below) since March '92.
There is a mailing list (see below) with >>100 subscribers.

The system comes with the schema compiler, a library of predefined
classes (like Set<Entity>, List<Entity>, String, ...), a graphical
object browser (more a shell than a browser), the structurer and
flattener (STF), tclOBST, and all manuals. For STF and
tclOBST see below.

Structurer and Flattener
------------------------

This is a tool to build objects from bytestrings and flatten objects
down to bytestrings. It is intended to be used when coupling UNIX
tools to the object management system. The user defines a grammar that
describes her objects. Afterwards, the structurer parses an ascii 
text according to the given grammar and creates an OBST object
structure that represents the corresponding parse tree.
The flattener does the inverse transformation, that means it generates
an ascii text from a given OBST object structure according to the given
grammar.

tclOBST
-------

tclOBST is a library which provides an embedding of OBST into the
interactive tool command language tcl, developed by John Ousterhout
at the University of Berkeley.
Based on the standard tcl shells, which are also comprised in the
tclOBST distribution, tclOBST offers interactive access to the complete
functionality modelled by OBST schemata.

System Requirements
-------------------

For the prototype's installation a C++ compiler
(GNU g++ 2.3.3/2.4.5/2.5.7 or AT&T 2.0/2.1/3.01) and the
X-Windows system (currently X11R4 or X11R5) for the graphical tools
are required.
Installation is well-tried on SUN Sparc stations and should be no
problem on other UNIX machines, too. You can find a more detailed
description of the supported platforms in the README.install.OBST*.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information please mail to:

                Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI)
                       OBST Projekt
                 Haid-und-Neu-Strasse 10-14
                     D-76131 Karlsruhe
                          Germany

or email to:  [email-masked]

Phone:        ++49-721-9654-601
Fax:          ++49-721-9654-609
Teletex:      721 190 fziKA

The OBST system is available via anonymous FTP from
ftp.fzi.de [141.21.4.3].

The system as well as some overview papers, documentation
(User's Guide, Language Reference Manual, Tutorial, ...),
and lots of manual pages can be found in the directory /pub/OBST.

There are mailing lists for announcing OBST enhancements,
new versions, porting hints, etc. as well as for exchanging experiences
with other OBST users.

Send a mail with content 'LONGINDEX' to [email-masked] to learn about
the mailing lists which are currently installed:
	echo LONGINDEX | mail [email-masked]

The mailing lists are maintained by an automatic list processor.
Use 'HELP' to learn about the commands understood by this processor:
	echo HELP | mail [email-masked]

Bug reports should contain a small example program with which the
bug can be reproduced, or at least a detailed description of the
observed phenomenon. They should also mention:
     o OBST version 
     o configuration parameters for your OBST version
       (from file config.status)
     o kind and version of C++ compiler 
     o machine
     o operating system

Besides bug reports we are strongly interested in all experiences
our users make with OBST (e.g. sufficiency of data model, performance,
...) and in our users' application areas and the applications as
well. So, please don't hesitate to send us a short note.

Best regards and happy OBST programming.

   The OBST Team,

	Boris Boesler, Dirk Eichberg, Frank Fock, Axel Freyberg,
	Michael Gravenhorst, Ingolf Mertens, Michael Pergande, Christian Popp,
	Bernhard Schiefer, Dietmar Theobald, Axel Uhl, Walter Zimmer

---

BTW "Obst" is the German word for "fruit",
    so have a fruitful time with OBST!

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