À Simple 00DBMS and its Application to 
the Pictorial Information System for Photogrammetry 
Qian Zeng-Bo 
Chen Rong-Guo 
Dept. of Photogrammtry & Remote Sensing 
Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying & Mapping CZISM) 
ABSTRACT 
A simple OODBMS is implemented in an OOP language 
Borland C++. It incorporates object identity and 
encapsulation via data abstraction. Objects and their 
operations are realised by the concept of class in 
C++. The DDL is constructed by C++ language. The DML 
is formed from lots of C++ functions. The B-tree index 
structure is adapted for the index management of the 
database. The main feature of the OODBMS is that it 
supports object-oriented model and can manage varible- 
length-record (VLR) database. Based on this OODBMS, 
and combined with algorithms of photogrammetry, image 
processing and computer graphics, an object-oriented 
pictorial information system for photogrammetry is 
built. 
[KEYWORDS] 
OODBMS, OOP language, pictorial information system 
geographic information system» photogrammetry. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The application of database technology to new 
applied fields, such as CAD/CAM/CAC, geographic 
informaion system (GIS), pictorial information system 
(PIS) and office automation (0A), is an extremely 
active area of database research. Many of these new 
applications deal with highly-structured objects that 
are composed of other objects. For example, a 
geographic object may be a complex object composed of 
different types of objects such as vectors, imagery, 
DEM, attributes etc. The popular commercial RDBMS, 
such as dBASE and ORACLE, can hardly suport these 
new applications because they can not handle complex 
objects. Several experimental OODBMSs, including 
GemStone (D. Maier, et al. 1987), Orion (J. Banerjee, 
et al. 1987), VBASE CT, Andrews, et al. 1987), PDM 
(F. Manola, et al. 1986), IRIS (D. H. Fishman, et al. 
1987), have been developed to meet the new needs. 
Most of them are based on an OOP language Smalltalk 
with some extensions. They incorporate object identity 
and encapsulation via data abstraction and support 
complex object and inheritance. 
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This paper presents a simple OODBMS which is 
implemented in another OOP language Borland C++ 
(originally Turbo C++). Since most of our application 
programs in OPIP CR. Chen, 1991), which is an object- 
oriented pictorial information system for 
photogrammetry, are realized in C and C++ language, 
we surely choose C++ other than Smalltalk as the 
basis for OODBMS development.The main feature of this 
OODBMS is that it supports object-oriented model and 
can manage variable-length-record (VLR) database. 
Based on this OODBMS, and combined with algorithms of 
photogrammetry, image processing and computer graphics, 
the OPIP has been built. In fact, the OODBMS forms the 
kernel of OPIP. other subsystems of OPIP are operated 
around the OODBMS. 
2. OBJECT-ORIENTED METHODOLOGY 
Object-oriented methodology (OOM) is one of the 
most attractive research subjects in current computer 
software field. The basic idea of OOM is that the 
problem domain is segmented in a natural way in order 
that the model of the problem domain can be 
established in such a way that it is closest to the 
normal way of human being’s thinking, and the 
can be simulated from 
thereby, the designed 
processing of problem 
objective information entities 
their structures and behaviors, 
software can represent the 
solving as direct as possible. 
parts : object-oriented 
requirements analysis (OORA), object-oriented design 
(00D) and object-oriented implementation (00I). OORA 
is used to determine the objects and their relations 
in the problem domain, and establish the object model 
of the problem. 00D is used to design the classes of 
objects and the inheritant relations among classes, 
and build the message model. 00I is used to implement 
the inner status and operations for each object, and 
realize the message transmission among objects. 
00M consists of three