Abstract:
Design Patterns (DPs), recently took over software development by storm. Object
oriented development, workflows and distributed computing are a few of the disciplines
where DP made a significant difference in the delivery speed and product quality.
Unfortunately, databases did not yet attract the attention of DP designers. This thesis
benefits from the growing popularity of open source, data centric applications, and
uncovers 24 DPs related to databases. The relative high number of patterns triggered the
creation of a new high level design language, DDRL, (Database Designer
Reconnaissance Language), which would allow anyone who knows how to use a word
processor to design and populate a normalized database; thus, laying out the blue print
for an eventual automation process, and significantly reducing and simplifying all the
stages of an upcoming development process. The principles behind DDRL will be
elaborated (language grammar, features and output characteristics).
