A natural language compiler for on-line data management

Abstract

During the past few years there has been a rapid advance in the technology of time-sharing systems and software to permit quick access to large files of structured data. This has led to a growing interest in communicating with computer files directly in a natural language such as English. The natural language systems described in the literature are largely small-scale research vehicles dealing with small data bases of restricted subject scope. Giuliano (1965), among others, has questioned the generalization of these systems to wider universes of discourse. Developments in this area have been reviewed by Simmons (1966), and by Bobrow, Fraser and Quillan (1967). In contrast, the work in on-line data management has been more concerned with the efficient organization of structured data to allow for quick access and maintenance of large volumes of formatted information [see the reviews by Kellogg (1967), Climenson (1966), and Minker and Sable (1967)].