SQL Entry - E.F. Codd
It would be inappropriate to begin a dialogue on SQL without discussing doctor Edgar Frank Codd a.k.a. E.F. Codd. During the 1960's and 1970's doctor Codd worked at IBM and produced a white paper called, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks." IBM made no efforts to implement Codd's theories even though its competitors began to.
In an effort to defend his views, Codd showed his theories to IBM customers who began to demand of IBM, that his theories be implemented. It was then that IBM began its "Future Systems" project which was intended to appease its customers more than Codd. It put in charge of the project, developers who were not thoroughly familiar with Codd's theories and isolated Codd from them. As a result, the team did not fully take advantage of Codd's relational language; however, their SEQUEL language was far superior to its predecessory query methods. Mr. Larry Ellison was so impressed with the new language that he adopted it. He then rapidly integrated it into his Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) and renamed it to SQL because SEQUEL had already been trademarked by IBM.
In the end, Oracle released its fully functional RDMBS prior to IBM's release of IMS/DB. Larry's continued effort to improve and expand his database and business systems has created one of the largest technology companies in the world. His database system continues to be "best of breed", offering many SQL functions and packages that greatly simplify the Database Administrator's day-to-day tasks.
Codd's Topics of Interest:
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