The design of an office information system (OIS) application development environment prototype, OPAL, is outlined.OPAL is based on an object management approach.The central concept is the packet, which is the principal data and action structuring device.The main ideas in OPAL are described, including novel data types, partitioned work spaces, object version management, multiple property inheritance, and incremental application development.A scheme for naming objects is proposed and discussed.There are basically two large advantages to such a scheme--a very practical shorthand for referring to objects and a means for structuring information according to criteria not represented in the objects themselves.The latter property also supports viewing objects in different roles.Furthermore, the scheme is used to structure the whole object management system.

The performance of a database system commonly deteriorates due to degradation of the database's physical data structure. The structure degradation is a consequence of the normal operations of a general database management system.