I have recently completed my Masters of Science in Software Engineering at the University of Staffordshire in the UK. My dissertation covered an age old problem that still remains a problem today. It was entitled :-

'The impedance mismatch between object-oriented constructs and relational databases'.

Dissertation Background

Obviously, in the world, there are object-oriented database management systems (OODBMS) in existence, but by far, the most popular database solutions are still relational (RDBMS), with the current top three being :-

For the impedance mismatch, this is especially relevant, as this problem will most certainly occur when object-oriented constructs need to be intelligently persisted within a relational database.

For some additional background, please refer to the following article.
This survey was live until November 24th, 2004 and is here for reference only. If you are interested in the results or any of my work concerning my dissertation, please feel free to get in contact with me.

Personal details (providing your details is optional, and all responses will remain confidential. It will allow me to track a little more information about you, and potentially email you, particularly if you have something to say in this survey):-

Name:
Email Address:
Company:

Current Designation:
Country:

 


Please fill out the following questions. You will be required to answer all questions (apologies for the decidedly 'dev' validation error messages).

1) How long have you been a software developer?               

2) How would you rate your expertise in the following object-oriented languages?

 

I don't know this language

Beginner

Advanced

Expert

C++

Java

J#

Eiffel

C#

Visual Basic.NET

Other

3) If you had the luxury of choice, what would be your preferred object-oriented
    language?

C++

 

 

Java

 

J#

 
Eiffel  

C#

 

Visual Basic.NET

 

Other

4) Why, especially from an object-oriented perspective? (Please comment in the box below)

 

5) What kind of software development projects are you typically involved in?
    (eg. Games development, office automation, web applications etc..)

 

6) How often do you use each of the following object-oriented constructs in your
    projects:-:-

 

Never

Sometimes

Often

 

Multiple Inheritance

 

Polymorphism

 
Overloading  

Hierarchies and Abstract Classes

 

Object Factories (Abstract Class Factories)

 

Functions modifying Functions

 
Collections  

Other constructs

7) Which type of database do you use with your object-oriented software projects?

Relational

 Object-Oriented Hybrid

8) What is the database that you most use for data persistence in your Object-Oriented
    software projects?

Microsoft SQL Server

(RDBMS)

Oracle 8i/9i/10G

(RDBMS)

IBM DB2

(RDBMS)
MySQL (RDBMS)
Matisse

(hybrid DBMS)
Objectivity

(OODBMS)

Other

9) If you had the luxury of choice, which database would you prefer to use for data persistence?

Microsoft SQL Server

 

(RDBMS)

Oracle 8i/9i/10G

(RDBMS)

IBM DB2

(RDBMS)
MySQL (RDBMS)
Matisse

(hybrid DBMS)
Objectivity

(OODBMS)

Other

10) Why? (Please comment in the box below)

 

11) Do you see object persistence (data persistence) and the object-relational impedance mismatch as a problem in your software development?

Yes

 No  

12) Why? or why not? (Please comment in the box below)

 

13) How do you normally overcome this problem (that is, implement a workaround)? (Please answer in the box below)

14) What design and implementation restrictions does you workaround impose? (Please answer in the box below)

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Please contribute your additional comments about this survey in the space below:-

  

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