Distributed office by example (D-OBE)

The D-OBE language for distributed office information systems is introduced. D-OBE is an extension of the OBE (Office by Example) and QBE (Query by Example) languages. A major problem was the design of a language simple enough for office workers and yet sufficiently powerful to handle the many facilities of a distributed office system. It is suggested that D-OBE achieves these goals by using the proven user-friendly QBE interface. Surprisingly few extensions to QBE were needed. The states of the servers are presented to the user as QBE tables that are manipulated by the familiar QBE operations. Another problem was to design D-OBE such that it would fit 'any' office. D-OBE is based on the observation that large offices divide their tasks among departments. A department will thus control its 'D-OBE cluster,' which is a number of workstations connected to a database, mail, hardcopy and name server. Such a cluster may cooperate with other clusters. The use of logical ports makes it possible to reconfigure the network as the structure and goals of the office evolve. A naming server provides the 'yellow pages' of the network services. D-OBE identifies for each data object, workstation, and server the person responsible for its proper handling.