Обсуждение: postgresql -- what's in a name?

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postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
will trillich
Дата:
i'm guessing there was a GRE project first, and that the
successor was POSTgre (involving sql, of course). if so, what's
the GRE stand for?

otherwise in general, what's the origin of the name
"postgresql"? (and why does it seem like it should be
pronounced "pissquel"?)

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Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
Vince Vielhaber
Дата:
On Sun, 10 Feb 2002, will trillich wrote:

> i'm guessing there was a GRE project first, and that the
> successor was POSTgre (involving sql, of course). if so, what's
> the GRE stand for?

What the hell is postgre?   If you're looking for the history of
PostgreSQL you can find a link to the "history" on the website's
announcements page (and mirrors).

> otherwise in general, what's the origin of the name
> "postgresql"? (and why does it seem like it should be
> pronounced "pissquel"?)

There's a wav and an mp3 file also on the announcements page (and mirrors)
of the website.  The announcements page is the main or first page.

Vince.
--
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Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
Doug McNaught
Дата:
http://developer.postgresql.org/pdf/history.pdf

May help enlighten you...

-Doug
--
Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.
   --T. J. Jackson, 1863


Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
will trillich
Дата:
on Sun, Feb 10, 2002, a busy guru snipped:
> What the hell is postgre?   If you're looking for the history of
> PostgreSQL you can find a link to the "history" on the website's
> announcements page (and mirrors).

i'm not.

    <note target="guru">
    if you don't think it's worth your time to answer, please go
    with your instincts.
    </note>

i'm looking for the history of the NAME, not the history of the
project.

the history page says nothing about the etymology -- except it
mentions intellectual predecessors, by name, in passing. so i
INFER (it's just a guess, of course, since it's not covered on
the history page) that if ingres came first and postgresql was
based on it, the logical successor might be aptly named
post-ingres, or postgres for short.

or perhaps the name postgres or postgre or postgresql means
something in its own right? aztec for 'think for yourself' maybe?
or mandarin for 'open source rocks'? sanskrit for 'awesome
cruncher' perhaps?

or, if postgres was named post-ingres, then what or who was the
mysterious ingres? was that somebody's name before it applied to
the relational technologies/ingres corporation? and why'd we
drop the "in" prefix in that case?

i know WHERE THE #NAMES# CAME FROM for apple, linux, even q-dos
and cp/m.  i'd like to know about the evolution of the name
"postgres".

--

and as for the pronunciation, let's say we'd like to have a
text-indexable and -searchable instance (commonly difficult to
do with an .mpg or .aiff or even -- heavens -- .wav file):

    "we pronounce postgresql as 'plith'. there you go."

perhaps

    <suggestion type="comedy">
    "among the accepted pronunciations of 'postgresql' are:
        post-GRESS-kwel
        PISS-kule
        PIG-skool
        OR-ah-kel cun-TEN-der
        MAIR-zee-doats
    though not necessarily in that order.  and with that,
    we consider the matter closed.  have a nice day."
    </suggestion>

how about it? hmm? (again, if you don't think it's worth your
time to answer, go with your first impulse.)

--
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Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...

Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
will trillich
Дата:
On Sun, Feb 10, 2002 at 08:03:27PM -0500, Doug McNaught wrote:
> http://developer.postgresql.org/pdf/history.pdf
>
> May help enlighten you...

i bet that was an interesting presentation!

still, i'm after the etymology -- whence "postgres"?

--
DEBIAN NEWBIE TIP #45 from Will Trillich <will@serensoft.com>
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Troubled by DOS-FORMAT TEXT FILES? There are many ways
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("perldoc perlrun" for more info.)

Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...

Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
"Dominic J. Eidson"
Дата:
On Sun, 10 Feb 2002, will trillich wrote:

> on Sun, Feb 10, 2002, a busy guru snipped:
> > What the hell is postgre?   If you're looking for the history of
> > PostgreSQL you can find a link to the "history" on the website's
> > announcements page (and mirrors).
>
> i'm not.

Yes you are. (See your questions later in this email)

>     <note target="guru">
>     if you don't think it's worth your time to answer, please go
>     with your instincts.
>     </note>
>
> i'm looking for the history of the NAME, not the history of the
> project.

After having read http://www.ca.postgresql.org/docs/devhistory.html (and
some prior knowledge from having read pages on postgresql.org), here's the
answer:

It started out as "Ingres" - a project at UCB. Then it was taken by
Michael Stonebraker, who led a team that worked on "Postgres"
("post-" as in "after-"), and developed into that. In 1995, it became
Postgres95 - and the final name change came with the addition of SQL
capabillities, at which point it became "PostgreSQL", the name it still
has.

> or, if postgres was named post-ingres, then what or who was the
> mysterious ingres? was that somebody's name before it applied to
> the relational technologies/ingres corporation? and why'd we
> drop the "in" prefix in that case?

If you'd read the above url, you'd have the answer to several of these
questions.. As several people already suggested you do. Oh, wait - you
don't want to know the history. Right.

> how about it? hmm? (again, if you don't think it's worth your
> time to answer, go with your first impulse.)

Your apparent sarcasm is quite lacking in the "witty" category, and overly
heavy on the "lame" category.


--
Dominic J. Eidson
                                        "Baruk Khazad! Khazad ai-menu!" - Gimli
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.the-infinite.org/              http://www.the-infinite.org/~dominic/


Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
"Dominic J. Eidson" <sauron@the-infinite.org> writes:
> It started out as "Ingres" - a project at UCB. Then it was taken by
> Michael Stonebraker, who led a team that worked on "Postgres"
> ("post-" as in "after-"), and developed into that.

"Taken" isn't the right word here, since Prof. Stonebraker was the lead
on both projects.  Also, Postgres was not a revision of Ingres but a
complete new project with new goals and all-new code.  See
http://s2k-ftp.CS.Berkeley.EDU:8000/postgres/postgres-v4r2/postgres.faq
(which can be reached from the POSTGRES link in our "What is
PostgreSQL?" documentation entry)

Karel posted a good summary awhile back:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2001-11/msg01255.php

> In 1995, it became
> Postgres95 - and the final name change came with the addition of SQL
> capabillities, at which point it became "PostgreSQL", the name it still
> has.

Postgres95 was SQL, if I'm not mistaken.

            regards, tom lane

Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
"Marc G. Fournier"
Дата:
On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Tom Lane wrote:

> Postgres95 was SQL, if I'm not mistaken.

Correct ... it was Jolly/Andrew's graduate project to take it from
PostQuel->SQL, and they named it Postgres95 as a joke revolving around
Windows95 at the time ..



Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
Lamar Owen
Дата:
On Monday 11 February 2002 09:37 am, Marc G. Fournier wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Tom Lane wrote:
> > Postgres95 was SQL, if I'm not mistaken.

> Correct ... it was Jolly/Andrew's graduate project to take it from
> PostQuel->SQL, and they named it Postgres95 as a joke revolving around
> Windows95 at the time ..

Ok.

To those who flamed Will for not reading the project history, this is the
kind of etymology he's talking about.  He's not wanting 'Postgres became
postgres95 which became postgresql' -- he's wanting the kind of information
Marc just gave.

What's interesting is not that it was called postgres; what's interesting is
WHY it's called postgres. So, to all those who felt a need to be too snippy
at Will's question, please, just count ten and either answer nicely or don't
answer.  Please?

The history of the name != the history of the project.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
Medi Montaseri
Дата:
Yes, but Will can also simply ask and move on...for all we care, he can rename
the entire program set to foo, goo, and whatever. Wasting this channel's
bandwidth might lure other participants away, thinking this is a chat room.

Lamar Owen wrote:

On Monday 11 February 2002 09:37 am, Marc G. Fournier wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Tom Lane wrote:
> > Postgres95 was SQL, if I'm not mistaken.

> Correct ... it was Jolly/Andrew's graduate project to take it from
> PostQuel->SQL, and they named it Postgres95 as a joke revolving around
> Windows95 at the time ..

Ok.

To those who flamed Will for not reading the project history, this is the
kind of etymology he's talking about.  He's not wanting 'Postgres became
postgres95 which became postgresql' -- he's wanting the kind of information
Marc just gave.

What's interesting is not that it was called postgres; what's interesting is
WHY it's called postgres. So, to all those who felt a need to be too snippy
at Will's question, please, just count ten and either answer nicely or don't
answer.  Please?

The history of the name != the history of the project.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
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Medi Montaseri                               medi@CyberShell.com
Unix Distributed Systems Engineer            HTTP://www.CyberShell.com
CyberShell Engineering
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

where the name "postgresql" really originated

От
will trillich
Дата:
On Mon, Feb 11, 2002 at 01:10:23AM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Karel posted a good summary awhile back:
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2001-11/msg01255.php

aha!

<quoting>
Ingres      - 1982 -- 1985
            - Michael Stonebraker and Eugene Wong at UC-Berkeley
            - Ingres = Interactive Graphics and Retrieval System
            - original developed on PDP-11/45
            - original query language was QUEL

Postgres    - 1985(?) - 1994
            - based on Ingres
            - start with idea make Ingres more OO
            - the father was again Stonebraker
</quoting>

i knew there was a good reason to like postgresql -- its
ancestry includes the pdp-11! :)

and the name postgres is from post-ingres, which stood for
"INteractive Graphics and REtrieval System". the acronym is a
bit off ("ingres" instead of "igrs" or "igars") but there it is.

and thus we have the etymology of the name "postgres" and by
extension, "postgresql".

:)

thanks!

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Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...

Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
will trillich
Дата:
the biggest chunk of bandwidth consumed by this exchange was
your reply, by the way: 101 lines -- far and away the biggest
chunk of traffic in the entire exchange.

physician, heal thyself.

On Mon, Feb 11, 2002 at 08:49:10PM -0800, Medi Montaseri wrote:
> Yes, but Will can also simply ask and move on...for all we care, he can rename
> the entire program set to foo, goo, and whatever. Wasting this channel's
> bandwidth might lure other participants away, thinking this is a chat room.

i did ask. and got spanked, so i tried rewording my question,
since my first iteration was misinterpreted by many.  and i got
spanked again.  is THAT the type of lure you expect to make your
e-list grow?

how about discussing interesting aspects of the project, in
addition to 'please solve my sql problem for me' questions?
just an idea.

"chat room" you say? get real.

next time when someone asks something and it gets under your
skin -- make sure you understand what they're asking.
discussing the name of this project may be a bit off topic
(altho the name of the list is pgsql-general, not
pgsql-execution-questions) but it sure isn't teen gossip.
either skip the post altogether or take a breath and see if you
can figure out what the asker is really after.  don't just jump
down their throat with a knee-jerk 'read the goddam faq' reply.
(if they're truly being lazy, BE SURE ABOUT IT and *then* jump
down their throats.)

luckily, tom and others supplied useful information and i
managed to find the answer to my question, despite your best
efforts to send me packing. nonnie nonnie boo boo. :p

--
Legalize Liberty.

will@serensoft.com
http://sourceforge.net/projects/newbiedoc -- we need your brain!
http://www.dontUthink.com/ -- your brain needs us!

Re: where the name "postgresql" really originated

От
Eric Cholet
Дата:
--On mardi 12 février 2002 01:18 -0600 will trillich <will@serensoft.com>
wrote:

> and the name postgres is from post-ingres, which stood for
> "INteractive Graphics and REtrieval System". the acronym is a
> bit off ("ingres" instead of "igrs" or "igars") but there it is.

I'll wager the acronym's author was fond of the famous painter
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/ingres/

--
Eric Cholet


Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
Devrim GUNDUZ
Дата:
Hi,

Below is a short history of PostgreSQL. I am not the author, and do not
remember where  I got these...

Regards,
Devrim
------------------------------------
A short history of PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL can trace its family tree back to 1977 at the University of
California at Berkeley (UCB). A relational database called Ingres was
developed at UCB between 1977 and 1985. Ingres was a popular UCB export,
making an appearance on very many UNIX computers in academic and research
communities. To serve the commercial marketplace the code for Ingres was
taken by Relational Technologies/Ingres Corporation and became one of the
first commercially available relational database management systems. Today
Ingres has become CA-INGRES II a product from Computer Associates. It is
hard to say whether any of the original UCB code still survives in this
modern day product.

Meanwhile, back at Berkeley work on a relational database server called
Postgres continued from 1986 to 1994. Again, this code was taken up by a
commercial company and offered for sale as a product. This time it was
Illustra, since swallowed up by Informix.

Around 1994 SQL features were added to Postgres and its name was changed
to Postgres95.

By 1996 Postgres was becoming very popular and the decision was taken to
open up its development to a mailing list, starting what has become a very
successful collaboration of volunteers in driving Postgres forward. At
this time Postgres underwent its final name change, ditching the now dated
‘95’ tag for a more appropriate ‘SQL’ to reflect the support Postgres now
had for the query language standard. So was PostgreSQL born.

Today a team of Internet developers develops PostgreSQL in much the same
manner as other Open Source software such as Perl, Apache and PHP. Users
have access to the source code and contribute fixes, enhancements and
suggestions for new features. The official PostgreSQL releases are made
via the PostgreSQL.org website.

Commercial support is available from Great Bridge, who also employ some of
the PostgreSQL developers too. See the Resources section at the end of the
chapter for more details.


--

Devrim GUNDUZ

devrim@oper.metu.edu.tr
devrim.gunduz@linux.org.tr
devrimg@tr.net

Web : http://devrim.oper.metu.edu.tr
------------------------------------------------------------------






Re: where the name "postgresql" really originated

От
Bruce Momjian
Дата:
Eric Cholet wrote:
> --On mardi 12 f?vrier 2002 01:18 -0600 will trillich <will@serensoft.com>
> wrote:
>
> > and the name postgres is from post-ingres, which stood for
> > "INteractive Graphics and REtrieval System". the acronym is a
> > bit off ("ingres" instead of "igrs" or "igars") but there it is.
>
> I'll wager the acronym's author was fond of the famous painter
> Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
>
> http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/ingres/

Maybe.  I saw a painting by Ingres somewhere, I think it was in Spain,
and it sort of looked strange --- the name "Ingres" under a painting.

--
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
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Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
Bruce Momjian
Дата:
> Commercial support is available from Great Bridge, who also employ some of
> the PostgreSQL developers too. See the Resources section at the end of the
> chapter for more details.

This must be from some Great Bridge sponsored author because there is no
mention of other PostgreSQL support companies.

--
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
Devrim GUNDUZ
Дата:
Hi,
On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> > Commercial support is available from Great Bridge, who also employ some of
> > the PostgreSQL developers too. See the Resources section at the end of the
> > chapter for more details.
>
> This must be from some Great Bridge sponsored author because there is no
> mention of other PostgreSQL support companies.

As far as I remember, this was from a book. In addition, this has been
written before greatbtridge.org was off, I think...

Regards and best wishes.
--

Devrim GUNDUZ

devrim@oper.metu.edu.tr
devrim.gunduz@linux.org.tr
devrimg@tr.net

Web : http://devrim.oper.metu.edu.tr
------------------------------------------------------------------





Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

От
"Sander Steffann"
Дата:
Hi,

> Postgres95 was SQL, if I'm not mistaken.

You are not :)
It's when we started to use Postgres* as a backend for our website and
accounting system.

A looooooong time ago!
Sander.