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diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/html/history.html b/doc/src/sgml/html/history.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a391c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/src/sgml/html/history.html @@ -0,0 +1,140 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>2. A Brief History of PostgreSQL</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="intro-whatis.html" title="1. What Is PostgreSQL?" /><link rel="next" href="notation.html" title="3. Conventions" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">2. A Brief History of <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span></th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="intro-whatis.html" title="1. What Is PostgreSQL?">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="preface.html" title="Preface">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Preface</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.4 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="notation.html" title="3. Conventions">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" id="HISTORY"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">2. A Brief History of <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span></h2></div></div></div><div class="toc"><dl class="toc"><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="history.html#HISTORY-BERKELEY">2.1. The Berkeley <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> Project</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="history.html#HISTORY-POSTGRES95">2.2. <span class="productname">Postgres95</span></a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="history.html#id-1.3.5.6">2.3. <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span></a></span></dt></dl></div><a id="id-1.3.5.2" class="indexterm"></a><p> + The object-relational database management system now known as + <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> is derived from the + <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> package written at the + University of California at Berkeley. With decades of + development behind it, <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> is now + the most advanced open-source database available anywhere. + </p><div class="sect2" id="HISTORY-BERKELEY"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">2.1. The Berkeley <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> Project</h3></div></div></div><a id="id-1.3.5.4.2" class="indexterm"></a><p> + The <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> project, led by Professor + Michael Stonebraker, was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research + Projects Agency (<acronym class="acronym">DARPA</acronym>), the Army Research + Office (<acronym class="acronym">ARO</acronym>), the National Science Foundation + (<acronym class="acronym">NSF</acronym>), and ESL, Inc. The implementation of + <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> began in 1986. The initial + concepts for the system were presented in <a class="xref" href="biblio.html#STON86">[ston86]</a>, + and the definition of the initial data model appeared in <a class="xref" href="biblio.html#ROWE87">[rowe87]</a>. The design of the rule system at that time was + described in <a class="xref" href="biblio.html#STON87A">[ston87a]</a>. The rationale and + architecture of the storage manager were detailed in <a class="xref" href="biblio.html#STON87B">[ston87b]</a>. + </p><p> + <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> has undergone several major + releases since then. The first <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">demoware</span>”</span> system + became operational in 1987 and was shown at the 1988 + <acronym class="acronym">ACM-SIGMOD</acronym> Conference. Version 1, described in + <a class="xref" href="biblio.html#STON90A">[ston90a]</a>, was released to a few external users in + June 1989. In response to a critique of the first rule system + (<a class="xref" href="biblio.html#STON89">[ston89]</a>), the rule system was redesigned (<a class="xref" href="biblio.html#STON90B">[ston90b]</a>), and Version 2 was released in June 1990 with + the new rule system. Version 3 appeared in 1991 and added support + for multiple storage managers, an improved query executor, and a + rewritten rule system. For the most part, subsequent releases + until <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> (see below) focused on + portability and reliability. + </p><p> + <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> has been used to implement many + different research and production applications. These include: a + financial data analysis system, a jet engine performance monitoring + package, an asteroid tracking database, a medical information + database, and several geographic information systems. + <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> has also been used as an + educational tool at several universities. Finally, Illustra + Information Technologies (later merged into + <a class="ulink" href="https://www.ibm.com/analytics/informix" target="_top"><span class="productname">Informix</span></a>, + which is now owned by <a class="ulink" href="https://www.ibm.com/" target="_top">IBM</a>) picked up the code and + commercialized it. In late 1992, + <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> became the primary data manager + for the + <a class="ulink" href="http://meteora.ucsd.edu/s2k/s2k_home.html" target="_top"> + Sequoia 2000 scientific computing project</a>. + </p><p> + The size of the external user community nearly doubled during 1993. + It became increasingly obvious that maintenance of the prototype + code and support was taking up large amounts of time that should + have been devoted to database research. In an effort to reduce + this support burden, the Berkeley + <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> project officially ended with + Version 4.2. + </p></div><div class="sect2" id="HISTORY-POSTGRES95"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">2.2. <span class="productname">Postgres95</span></h3></div></div></div><a id="id-1.3.5.5.2" class="indexterm"></a><p> + In 1994, Andrew Yu and Jolly Chen added an SQL language interpreter + to <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span>. Under a new name, + <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> was subsequently released to + the web to find its own way in the world as an open-source + descendant of the original <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> + Berkeley code. + </p><p> + <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> code was completely ANSI C + and trimmed in size by 25%. Many internal changes improved + performance and + maintainability. <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> release + 1.0.x ran about 30–50% faster on the Wisconsin Benchmark compared + to <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span>, Version 4.2. Apart from + bug fixes, the following were the major enhancements: + + </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p> + The query language PostQUEL was replaced with + <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> (implemented in the server). (Interface + library <a class="link" href="libpq.html" title="Chapter 34. libpq — C Library">libpq</a> was named after PostQUEL.) + Subqueries + were not supported until <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> + (see below), but they could be imitated in + <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> with user-defined + <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> functions. Aggregate functions were + re-implemented. Support for the <code class="literal">GROUP BY</code> + query clause was also added. + </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> + A new program + (<span class="application">psql</span>) was provided for interactive + SQL queries, which used <acronym class="acronym">GNU</acronym> + <span class="application">Readline</span>. This largely superseded + the old <span class="application">monitor</span> program. + </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> + A new front-end library, <code class="filename">libpgtcl</code>, + supported <acronym class="acronym">Tcl</acronym>-based clients. A sample shell, + <code class="command">pgtclsh</code>, provided new Tcl commands to + interface <span class="application">Tcl</span> programs with the + <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> server. + </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> + The large-object interface was overhauled. The inversion large + objects were the only mechanism for storing large objects. (The + inversion file system was removed.) + </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> + The instance-level rule system was removed. Rules were still + available as rewrite rules. + </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> + A short tutorial introducing regular <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> + features as well as those of + <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> was distributed with the + source code + </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> + <acronym class="acronym">GNU</acronym> make (instead of <acronym class="acronym">BSD</acronym> + make) was used for the build. Also, + <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> could be compiled with an + unpatched <span class="productname">GCC</span> (data alignment of + doubles was fixed). + </p></li></ul></div><p> + </p></div><div class="sect2" id="id-1.3.5.6"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">2.3. <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span></h3></div></div></div><p> + By 1996, it became clear that the name <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Postgres95</span>”</span> + would not stand the test of time. We chose a new name, + <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>, to reflect the relationship + between the original <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> and the + more recent versions with <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> capability. At + the same time, we set the version numbering to start at 6.0, + putting the numbers back into the sequence originally begun by the + Berkeley <span class="productname">POSTGRES</span> project. + </p><p> + Many people continue to refer to + <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> as <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Postgres</span>”</span> + (now rarely in all capital letters) because of tradition or because + it is easier to pronounce. This usage is widely accepted as a + nickname or alias. + </p><p> + The emphasis during development of + <span class="productname">Postgres95</span> was on identifying and + understanding existing problems in the server code. With + <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>, the emphasis has shifted to + augmenting features and capabilities, although work continues in + all areas. + </p><p> + Details about what has happened in <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> since + then can be found in <a class="xref" href="release.html" title="Appendix E. Release Notes">Appendix E</a>. + </p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="intro-whatis.html" title="1. What Is PostgreSQL?">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="preface.html" title="Preface">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="notation.html" title="3. Conventions">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">1. 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