7. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the functional-form query is expressed within a functional-form query framework comprising a plurality of objects, each object comprising one of a relation, a query variable, and a sequence of elements, and wherein a query variable is a query that is bound to one or more specific relations.
7. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the functional-form query is expressed within a functional-form query framework comprising a plurality of objects, each object comprising one of a relation, a query variable, and a sequence of elements, and wherein a query variable is a query that is bound to one or more specific relations. 8. The computing system of claim 7 , wherein each element comprises one of an object, an undefined element, a logical value of true, a logical value of false, and an empty element.