Extending the Entity-Relationship Model

Abstract

At this point we will introduce the structural part of the higher-order entity-relationship model (HERM). In this section, it will be shown that a well-founded theory exists for this model. Furthermore, there are several other advantages to the HERM approach:

• HERM schemes are much simpler and easier to understand than ER model schemes.

• HERM schemes support abstraction in a simple but comprehensible manner.

• HERM schemes can be translated together with the corresponding constraints, user-defined operations and generic operations into normalized relational, hierarchical or network schemes.

It is written: “In the beginning was the Word!” Even now I balk. Can no one help? I truly cannot rate the word so high. I must translate it otherwise. I believe the Spirit has inspired me And I must write: “In the beginning there was Mind.” Think thoroughly on this first line, Hold back your pen from undue haste! Is it mind that stirs and makes all things? The text should state: “In the beginning there was Power!” Yet while I am about to write this down, Something warns me I will not adhere to this. The Spirit’s on my side! The answer is at hand: I write, assured, “In the beginning was the Deed.”

Goethe, Faust I, Faust’s Study