Application of SGML and OODB Techniques in a Textual Database

An electronic dictionary system (EDS) is developed using object-oriented database techniques based on ObjectStore. The EDS is basically composed of two parts: the Database Building Program (DBP), and the Database Querying Program (DQP). The DBP reads in a dictionary encoded in SGML tags, and builds a database composed of a collection of trees which holds dictionary entries and several lists which contain values of various lexical categories. With text exchangeability introduced by the SGML, the DBP is able to accommodate dictionaries of different structures, after modifying its configuration file. The DQP adopts SQL-like syntax and handles queries by exploiting the category lists through a optimization procedure. Initial tests show that compared with relation database, the DQP enjoys much faster speed and offers much higher flexibility in setting both lexical criterion and context requirements.