Schema Evolution: Concepts, Terminology, and Solutions

Bertrand Meyer. Schema Evolution: Concepts, Terminology, and Solutions. IEEE Computer, 29(10):119-121, 1996.

Abstract

Most applications must keep objects from one session to the next. This is known as persistence. But objects are not raw data: They are instances of classes. What happens if an object’s class (its generator) changes from one session to the next? This problem is known as schema evolution (the term schema is borrowed from relational databases). This column defined a framework for addressing schema evolution in object technology.