Re: Postgres

[Chris Albertson <chris@topdog.pas1.logicon.com>]

Good questions maybe there is general interest so
I'll let the answers go out to the list.

I use the term "Postgres" loosely.  Technically
"Postgres" is not SQL but...

Postgres was Prof. Stonbreaker's second database
project and followed Ingres which was the world's
first RDBMS.  Both Ingres and Postgres used
QUEL not SQL.  Many people still think QUEL is
better as a query language

Two grad students at Berkeley released Postgres95
which was a conversion to SQL They did a good job
but quit working on the system shortly afterward.

A while back, an Internet based, international group
picked up work and renamed it Postgresql as by then
the 95 name was dated and they wanted to let it be
known that it now "does SQL".

Everyone still calls it postgres informally.  It is
a "moderate" sized chunk of code.  About 250,000
lines of C. and most of it dates back to Berkeley.
The SQL stuff is done by a YACC parser and is only 
a small part of the total so IMO it is still Postgres
and "Postgresql" is to hard to say.

Do most people use Linux?  I'd guess not.  What
I meant was that most people who would want to use
my program are using Linux on an Intel processor.
I'd doubt most people reading the e-mail use Linux.
The program is only of use to someone who wants to
set up and run a database system for TASS data
and as designed that requires a UNIX like system.

If you are looking for information on Postgresql
go to www.postgresql.org the current version is
6.2.1  v4r2 is likely very old (pre 95)

Just a note, if you are interested in Linux, Postgres
6.2.1 now comes with RedHat Linux 5.0 on the CD 

Cameron Tully-Smith wrote (with edits):
> 
> Some questions...
 
> I was under the impression that Postgres didn't support SQL...  does
> it after all (re: your mention of a limitation of 65,000 SQL statements
> inside a BEGIN..END pair)?  I've downloaded the
> ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/database/postgres/postgres-v4r2.tar.Z
> file.
> 
>  do most people run Linux?
> 
> Thanks! :)
> 
> Cameron :)
> Cameron Tully-Smith
> cameron@cs.sonoma.edu
> http://www.cs.sonoma.edu/~cameron

-- 

--Chris Albertson

  chris@topdog.logicon.com                Voice:  818-351-0089  X127
  Logicon RDA, Pasadena California          Fax:  818-351-0699