Object-Oriented Databases and Deductive Databases: Systems Without Market? Market Without Systems?

Current database research can be characterized as being extremely broad-based, with a wide spectrum of topics pursued all over the world, and with new topics being introduced year after year. Or formulated somewhat negatively: Database research seems these days to be highly unfocussed. This is in marked difference to the Seventies and early Eighties, where a few topics dominated database research and development and gave coherence to it: relational databases, query languages, distibuted databases, transaction management, together with the ensuing implementation techniques and performance considerations. The researchers of that time can take satisfaction from the large number, wide availability and broad acceptance of database technology, and in particular relational technology.