2 <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
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4 <!ENTITY % myents SYSTEM "entities.inc">
8 <glossary id="glossary">
10 <para>This glossary is still very thinly populated, and not all
11 references in the main text have been properly linked and
12 coordinated with this glossary. This will hopefully change in
16 <glossentry id="gloss-attribute">
17 <glossterm>Attribute</glossterm>
20 A property of objects stored in a database table. Attributes are
21 represented as columns (or fields) in a table.
26 <glossterm>Active database</glossterm>
27 <glosssee otherterm="gloss-database-object" />
30 <glossterm>Connection</glossterm>
31 <glosssee otherterm="gloss-database-object" />
34 <glossterm>Closed Database</glossterm>
37 An object of type <type>closed-database</type>. This is
38 in contrast to the terms connection, database, active
39 database or <glossterm
40 linkend="gloss-database-object">database object</glossterm>
41 which don't include objects which are closed database.
46 <glossterm>Column</glossterm>
47 <glosssee otherterm="gloss-attribute" />
49 <glossentry id="gloss-ddl">
50 <glossterm>Data Definition Language (<acronym>DDL</acronym>)
54 The subset of SQL used for defining and examining the
55 structure of a database.
59 <glossentry id="gloss-dml">
60 <glossterm>Data Manipulation Language (<acronym>DML</acronym>)
64 The subset of SQL used for inserting, deleting, updating and
65 fetching data in a database.
70 <glossterm>database</glossterm>
71 <glosssee otherterm="gloss-database-object" />
73 <glossentry id="gloss-database-object">
74 <glossterm>Database Object</glossterm>
76 <para>An object of type <type>database</type>.</para>
80 <glossterm>Field</glossterm>
81 <glosssee otherterm="gloss-attribute" />
83 <glossentry id="gloss-field-types">
84 <glossterm>Field Types Specifier</glossterm>
86 <para>A value that specifies the type of each field in a query.</para>
89 <glossentry id="gloss-ffi">
90 <glossterm>Foreign Function Interface
91 (<acronym>FFI</acronym>)
95 An interface from Common Lisp to a external library which
96 contains compiled functions written in other programming
97 languages, typically C.
101 <glossentry id="gloss-query">
102 <glossterm>Query</glossterm>
105 An SQL statement which returns a set of results.
110 <glossterm>RDBMS</glossterm>
113 A Relational DataBase Management System
114 (<acronym>RDBMS</acronym>) is a software package for managing
115 a database in which the data is defined, organised and
116 accessed as rows and columns of a table.
120 <glossentry id="gloss-record">
121 <glossterm>Record</glossterm>
124 A sequence of attribute values stored in a database table.
129 <glossterm>Row</glossterm>
130 <glosssee otherterm="gloss-record" />
132 <glossentry id="gloss-sql">
133 <glossterm>Structured Query Language
134 (<acronym>SQL</acronym>)
138 An ANSI standard language for storing and retrieving data
139 in a relational database.
143 <glossentry id="gloss-sql-expression">
144 <glossterm>SQL Expression</glossterm>
146 <para>Either a string containing a valid SQL statement, or
147 an object of type <type>sql-expression</type>.
149 <para>This has not been implemented yet, so only strings
150 are valid SQL expressions for the moment.
156 <glossentry id="gloss-table">
157 <glossterm>Table</glossterm>
160 A collection of data which is defined, stored and accessed as
161 tuples of attribute values (i.e., rows and columns).
165 <glossentry id="gloss-transaction">
166 <glossterm>Transaction</glossterm>
169 An atomic unit of one or more SQL statements of which all or none are
170 successfully executed.
175 <glossterm>Tuple</glossterm>
176 <glosssee otherterm="gloss-record" />
178 <glossentry id="gloss-view">
179 <glossterm>View</glossterm>
182 A table display whose structure and content are derived from an
183 existing table via a query.