The MICRO Relational Database Management System was the first large-scale
set-theoretic database management system
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and an ...
to be used in production.
["A set theoretic data structure and retrieval language" (PDF)]
William R. Hershey and Carol H. Easthope, Paper from the Session on Data Structures, Spring Joint Computer Conference, May 1972 in ''ACM SIGIR Forum'', Volume 7, Issue 4 (December 1972), pp. 45-55, DO
10.1145/1095495.1095500
/ref> Though MICRO was initially considered to be an "Information Management System", it was eventually recognized to provide all the capabilities of an RDBMS. MICRO's major underpinnings and algorithms were based on the Set-Theoretic Data Structure (STDS) model developed by D. L. Childs of the University of Michigan's CONCOMP (Conversational Use of Computers) Project.["Sets, Data Models and Data Independence"]
by Ken North a Dr. Dobb's Blogger, March 10, 2010 MICRO featured a natural language interface which allowed non-programmers to use the system.[''MICRO Information Management System (Version 5.0) Reference Manual'']
M.A. Kahn, D.L. Rumelhart, and B.L. Bronson, October 1977, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations (ILIR), University of Michigan and Wayne State University
Implementation of MICRO began in 1970 as part of the Labor Market Information System (LMIS) project at the University of Michigan's Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations (ILIR). Dr. Malcolm S. Cohen was Director of the LMIS Project and was the principal innovator and designer of the original MICRO Retrieval System. Carol Easthope and Jack Guskin were the principal programmers. D.L. Childs, Vice President of Set Theoretic Information Systems (STIS) Corporation, provided continuing guidance in the use of Set-Theoretic Data Structure (STDS) data access software for MICRO. Funding came from the Office of Manpower Administration within the U.S. Department of Labor.[ MICRO was first used for the study of large social science data bases referred to as micro data; hence the name. Organizations such as the US Department of Labor, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and researchers from the ]University of Alberta
The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...
, the University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, Wayne State University
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...
, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick un ...
, and Durham University
Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
used MICRO to manage very large scale databases until 1998.
MICRO runs under the Michigan Terminal System (MTS), the interactive time-sharing system developed at the University of Michigan that runs on IBM System/360 Model 67, System/370, and compatible mainframe computers. MICRO provides a query language, a database directory, and a data dictionary to create an interface between the user and the very efficient proprietary Set-Theoretic Data Structure (STDS) software developed by the Set-Theoretic Information Systems Corporation (STIS) of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The lower level routines from STIS treat the data bases as sets and perform set operations on them, e.g., union, intersection, restrictions, etc. Although the underlying STDS model is based on set theory, the MICRO user interface is similar to those subsequently used in relational database management systems.[ MICRO's data representation can be thought of as a matrix or table in which the rows represent different records or "cases", and the columns contain individual data items for each record; however, the actual data representation is in set-theoretic form. In labor market applications the rows typically represent job applicants or employees and columns represent fields such as age, sex, and income or type of industry, number of employees, and payroll.][
MICRO permits users with little programming experience to define, enter, interrogate, manipulate, and update collections of data in a relatively unstructured and unconstrained environment.][ An interactive system, MICRO is powerful in terms of the complexity of requests which can be made by users without prior programming language experience. MICRO includes basic statistical computations such as mean, variance, frequency, median, etc. If more rigorous statistical analysis are desired, the data from a MICRO database can be exported to the Michigan Interactive Data Analysis System (MIDAS), a statistical analysis package available under the Michigan Terminal System.][Converting from Traditional File Structures to Database Management Systems: A Powerful Tool for Nursing Management"]
Yvonne Marie Abdoo, Ph.D., R.N, Wayne State University College of Nursing, 1987
References
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Proprietary database management systems
1960s software