Context
ORM stands for object-relational mapping. It comprises solutions for the problem of dumping objects in a relational database.
Problem
ORM is very well-understood for class-based languages such as Java. A pattern-based methodology exists that helps us decide how to map class-structures onto tables in a relational database. The structure of the class hierarchy is an important tool to do so.
In prototype-based languages, no such class structure exists and programs consist of many self-contained ('singleton') objects. The question is how we can come up with an efficient way to dump such objects onto a relational database.
Objective
The problem manifests itself when trying to make AmbientTalk applications persistent by storing AmbientTalk objects in an SQL database. Hence, the problem to be tackled is to come up with an efficient strategy for mapping AmbientTalk objects onto a relational database. In a first phase, prototypes will be the main issues. In a second phase, concurrency will come into play as well.