Generalized Query?

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

I've been thinking about the problem of a generalized query,
but I haven't made any headway.  The reason I haven't been
able to make much headway is that queries can be so different
that, say, a query on the customer database looks nothing
like the query on an account.  However, there may be times
when you want to search on something like:

	return all customers where invoice charges account A

I'm wondering if we really want a unified query, or if what we
really want is a query framework so that each type of object
can define its' own query terms and predicates?

I haven't put many neurons into this problem, yet -- I was
wondering if anyone else has?

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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