r9601: Documentation for symbolic SQL syntax.

[clsql.git] / doc / glossary.xml

diff --git a/doc/glossary.xml b/doc/glossary.xml
index a8bc814c5ea30b0042bdde04e55e1412cea3a9b7..6eb3fb810a5da88372d3fc2159de954d14554917 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/glossary.xml
+++ b/doc/glossary.xml
@@ -13,6 +13,15 @@
     future revisions.
     </para>
   </note>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-attribute">
+    <glossterm>Attribute</glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para> 
+        A property of objects stored in a database table. Attributes are 
+        represented as columns (or fields) in a table. 
+      </para> 
+    </glossdef> 
+  </glossentry>
   <glossentry>
     <glossterm>Active database</glossterm>
     <glosssee otherterm="gloss-database-object" />
@@ -21,7 +30,7 @@
     <glossterm>Connection</glossterm>
     <glosssee otherterm="gloss-database-object" />
   </glossentry>
-  <glossentry>
+  <!-- glossentry>
     <glossterm>Closed Database</glossterm>
     <glossdef>
       <para>
@@ -32,11 +41,51 @@
        which don't include objects which are closed database.
       </para>
     </glossdef>
+  </glossentry -->
+  <glossentry>
+    <glossterm>Column</glossterm>
+    <glosssee otherterm="gloss-attribute" />
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-ddl">
+    <glossterm>Data Definition Language (<acronym>DDL</acronym>)
+    </glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para>
+        The subset of SQL used for defining and examining the
+        structure of a database.
+      </para>
+    </glossdef>
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-dml">
+    <glossterm>Data Manipulation Language (<acronym>DML</acronym>)
+    </glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para>
+        The subset of SQL used for inserting, deleting, updating and
+        fetching data in a database. 
+      </para>
+    </glossdef>
   </glossentry>
   <glossentry>
     <glossterm>database</glossterm>
     <glosssee otherterm="gloss-database-object" />
   </glossentry>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-database-object">
+    <glossterm>Database Object</glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para>An object of type <type>database</type>.</para>
+    </glossdef>
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry>
+    <glossterm>Field</glossterm>
+    <glosssee otherterm="gloss-attribute" />
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-field-types">
+    <glossterm>Field Types Specifier</glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para>A value that specifies the type of each field in a query.</para>
+    </glossdef>
+  </glossentry>
   <glossentry id="gloss-ffi">
     <glossterm>Foreign Function Interface 
     (<acronym>FFI</acronym>)
@@ -49,26 +98,45 @@
       </para>
     </glossdef>
   </glossentry>
-  <glossentry id="gloss-database-object">
-    <glossterm>Database Object</glossterm>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-query">
+    <glossterm>Query</glossterm>
     <glossdef>
-      <para>An object of type <type>database</type>.</para>
+      <para>
+        An SQL statement which returns a set of results. 
+      </para>
     </glossdef>
   </glossentry>
-  <glossentry id="gloss-field-types">
-    <glossterm>Field Types Specifier</glossterm>
+  <glossentry>
+    <glossterm>RDBMS</glossterm>
     <glossdef>
-      <para>A value that specifies the type of each field in a query.</para>
+      <para>
+        A Relational DataBase Management System
+        (<acronym>RDBMS</acronym>) is a software package for managing
+        a database in which the data is defined, organised and
+        accessed as rows and columns of a table.
+      </para>
+    </glossdef> 
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-record">
+    <glossterm>Record</glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para>
+        A sequence of attribute values stored in a database table. 
+      </para>
     </glossdef>
   </glossentry>
+  <glossentry>
+    <glossterm>Row</glossterm>
+    <glosssee otherterm="gloss-record" />
+  </glossentry>
   <glossentry id="gloss-sql">
     <glossterm>Structured Query Language
     (<acronym>SQL</acronym>)
     </glossterm>
     <glossdef>
       <para>
-       An ANSI standard language for storing and retrieving data
-       in a relational database.
+        An ANSI standard language for storing and retrieving data
+        in a relational database.
       </para>
     </glossdef>
   </glossentry>
@@ -77,11 +145,42 @@
     <glossdef>
       <para>Either a string containing a valid SQL statement, or
       an object of type <type>sql-expression</type>.
-      <note>
+      <!-- note>
        <para>This has not been implemented yet, so only strings
        are valid SQL expressions for the moment.
        </para>
-      </note>
+      </note -->
+      </para>
+    </glossdef>
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-table">
+    <glossterm>Table</glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para>
+        A collection of data which is defined, stored and accessed as 
+        tuples of attribute values (i.e., rows and columns). 
+      </para>
+    </glossdef>
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-transaction">
+    <glossterm>Transaction</glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para>
+        An atomic unit of one or more SQL statements of which all or none are 
+        successfully executed. 
+      </para>
+    </glossdef>
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry>
+    <glossterm>Tuple</glossterm>
+    <glosssee otherterm="gloss-record" />
+  </glossentry>
+  <glossentry id="gloss-view">
+    <glossterm>View</glossterm>
+    <glossdef>
+      <para>
+        A table display whose structure and content are derived from an 
+        existing table via a query. 
       </para>
     </glossdef>
   </glossentry>