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

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
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