VIII. Computers at their best data base management systems'

Direct access mass storage devices² have been used in statisti­cal systems for a decade.³ However, as with many other areas of computing technology, it has only been much more recently that softw.are developments have made significant changes in the prin­ciples of computer functioning.

The most important developments in this respect have been systems for integrated data management.⁴ Current software systems have made true data management feasible.⁵ However, up to now there has been little effective standartisation of systems techniques. Furthermore, the data management software systems available now are often burdened with clumsy interfaces to application programs.⁶

The Data Base 'Task Group⁷ of the Codasyi Committee" has made significant efforts to standardize the general terminology and also the data definition and manipulation languages.⁹ The more recent data base management systems that have appeared on the market have already implemented the proposals of the Group, In fact. the most important development in the next decade will probably be the wide acceptance of a set of standards in the field of data management systems.

A more recent approach, the so-catied relational mode! of data bases,¹⁰ also promises significant improvements in data manage­ment concepts, although practical developments along this alterna­tive are not yet in sight. The essence of this model is that all data

' Data base management system — Система управления базой данных ² direct access mass storage device — устройство массовой памяти прямого

доступа '* for a decade •— в течение десяти лет

⁴ integrated data management —- управление интегрированными базами данных (т. с. несколькими базами, построенными по логическому принципу)

⁵ feasible — выполнимый, осуществимый

" are... burdened with... interfaces to application programs — перегружены ин­терфейсами (устройствами сопряжения) для прикладных программ

' task group — временная группа разработчиков'

^а Codasyi (= Conference on Data System Languages) Committee—органи­зация в США, занимающаяся разработкой стандартных средств для обра­ботки экономический информации

⁹ manipulation language—операционный язык

¹⁰ relational model of data bases — реляционная модель баз данных (модель, логически организованная как. набор отношений между данными в виде прямо­угольных таблиц, помещаемых над списками данных)

¹¹ practical developments along this alternative are not yet In sight—практи­ческих разработок, реализующих эту альтернативу (этот вариант решения),

пока нет

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in the data base have a simpk: homogeneous structure and the data semantics are vested in 1!ie language which operates on such a data base.

The impact of the integrated data management approach on' the manner in which the statistical services process data could be quite considerable. As has already been pointed out, new organizational units may be created, the opportunities of this approach may make distributed data bases² practical³ and integrated statistical collection⁴ supportable.⁵ However, the current status of development in this area is still far short of what is necessary⁶ to realise the full potential of integrated data management. The hardware elements will probably develop sufficiently with respect to storage capacity, communications, improved use of storage media, associative memories,⁷ etc. but efforts will have to be made to ensure easy access to data and analytic tools for the statistician. This will require the development of interactive systems⁸ for access. retrieval, aggregation and other data manipulation by the statisti­cian without the intervention of a programmer.