Syngin
06-02-2006, 11:53 AM
Ever wondered why some IT acronyms are spelled out while it seems like some are sounded out? SQL has always annoyed me like this ('sequel' versus 'ess-que-ell') until I came across this today:
The history of SQL and relational databases traces back to E.F. Codd, an IBM researcher who first published an article on the relational database idea in June 1970. Codd's article started a flurry of research, including a major project at IBM. Part of this project was a database query language named SEQUEL, an acronym for Structured English Query Language. The name was later changed to SQL for legal reasons, but many people still pronounce it SEQUEL to this day. IBM published many articles in technical journals about it's SQL database language, and in the late 70's two other companies were started to develop similar products, which became Oracle and Ingres. By 1985 Oracle claimed to have over 1000 installations. In the late 80's and early 90's SQL products multiplied and became virtually the standard for database management in medium to large organizations, especially on UNIX and mainframes.
Source: http://www.provue.com/proVUE/Fact_SQLServer.html
I found this background pretty interesting and wanted to share it (assuming I wasn't the last person to hear about this ;) )
Anyone else have any interesting information tidbits they'd like to share?
The history of SQL and relational databases traces back to E.F. Codd, an IBM researcher who first published an article on the relational database idea in June 1970. Codd's article started a flurry of research, including a major project at IBM. Part of this project was a database query language named SEQUEL, an acronym for Structured English Query Language. The name was later changed to SQL for legal reasons, but many people still pronounce it SEQUEL to this day. IBM published many articles in technical journals about it's SQL database language, and in the late 70's two other companies were started to develop similar products, which became Oracle and Ingres. By 1985 Oracle claimed to have over 1000 installations. In the late 80's and early 90's SQL products multiplied and became virtually the standard for database management in medium to large organizations, especially on UNIX and mainframes.
Source: http://www.provue.com/proVUE/Fact_SQLServer.html
I found this background pretty interesting and wanted to share it (assuming I wasn't the last person to hear about this ;) )
Anyone else have any interesting information tidbits they'd like to share?