Historical data bases and the context sensitive handling of data: towards the development of historical data base management software

Abstract

Does the usage of computer related methods consists in the application of standard tools only or is the development of more specific techniques necessary? The following paper argues, that there are indeed fields of application, where the peculiarities of historical data are sufficiently intricate, so that we do not only have to develop new software tools, but have to engage upon the design of new concepts and algorithmic solutions. Such problems, fairly frequent in all areas where historical data are imprecise or "fuzzy" can best be described in cases, where the standard assumption of traditional data base models - that the content of a "filed" can be interpreted without knowing the value of another - is invalitated.