  We present a multi-process application called HISTEX (HISTory EXerciser),
which executes input histories in a generic transactional notation on
commercial DBMS platforms. HISTEX could be used to discover potential errors in
the implementation of Isolation Levels by Relational Database Management
Systems or cases where a system behaves over restrictively. It can also be used
for performance measurements related to database workloads executing on real
database systems instead of simulated environments. HISTEX has been implemented
in C by utilizing Embedded SQL. However, many of its ideas could be
reincarnated in new implementations that could rely on other database
connectivity paradigms such as JDBC, JPA etc. We expect that by presenting some
of the ideas behind its development we could re-invigorate some fresh interest
and involvement in the research community regarding such tools.
