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Sanders, G.L. (1995). Introduction to data modeling concepts. In _Data
modeling_ (p. 16-38). Danvers, Mass.: Boyd Frasier.
An introduction to the entity relationship (ER) method as a way of
modeling data prior to the creation of relational database tabels.
Describes the difference between and characteristics of entities and
attributes. Provides a clean explanation and demonstration of the
is-a, is-part-of, is-associated-with relationships that can exist
between entities and how these relationships to clarify structure in
data.
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While this work is primarily designed for database administrators it
does provide a cogent introduction to the concepts used in ontologies,
class structures, and object oriented programming paradigms.
An anecdote: In version 5 of the Perl programming language object
oriented programming can be accomplished. It's not exactly elegant but
it does work. Objects are created from classes (entities). These
objects have attributes as both data and methods. Using a global
variable called @ISA it is possible to subclass perl classes to create
entities which have the attributes of the parent class plus additional
attributes. Prior to SLIS I pronounced (in my head) the global
variable as "I suh" not "is a".
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