Abstract
Computer system users today are inundated with a flood of semi-structured information, such as documents, electronic mail, programs, and images. Today, this information is typically stored in filesystems that provide limited support for organizing, searching, and operating upon this data, all operations that are vital to the ability of users to effectively use this data. Database systems provide good function for organizing, searching, managing and writing applications on structured data. Current database systems are inappropriate for semi-structured information because moving the data into the database breaks all existing applications that use the data. The Rufus system attacks the problems of semi-structured information by using database function to help users manage semi-structured information without requiring that the user's information reside in the database. © 1993, ACM. All rights reserved.