223 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
223 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
<!-- doc/src/sgml/history.sgml -->
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<sect1 id="history">
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<title>A Brief History of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname></title>
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<indexterm zone="history">
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<primary>history</primary>
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<secondary>of PostgreSQL</secondary>
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</indexterm>
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<para>
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The object-relational database management system now known as
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<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> is derived from the
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<productname>POSTGRES</productname> package written at the
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University of California at Berkeley. With decades of
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development behind it, <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> is now
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the most advanced open-source database available anywhere.
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</para>
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<sect2 id="history-berkeley">
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<title>The Berkeley <productname>POSTGRES</productname> Project</title>
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<indexterm zone="history-berkeley">
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<primary>POSTGRES</primary>
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</indexterm>
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<para>
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The <productname>POSTGRES</productname> project, led by Professor
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Michael Stonebraker, was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research
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Projects Agency (<acronym>DARPA</acronym>), the Army Research
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Office (<acronym>ARO</acronym>), the National Science Foundation
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(<acronym>NSF</acronym>), and ESL, Inc. The implementation of
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<productname>POSTGRES</productname> began in 1986. The initial
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concepts for the system were presented in <xref linkend="ston86"/>,
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and the definition of the initial data model appeared in <xref
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linkend="rowe87"/>. The design of the rule system at that time was
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described in <xref linkend="ston87a"/>. The rationale and
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architecture of the storage manager were detailed in <xref
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linkend="ston87b"/>.
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</para>
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<para>
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<productname>POSTGRES</productname> has undergone several major
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releases since then. The first <quote>demoware</quote> system
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became operational in 1987 and was shown at the 1988
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<acronym>ACM-SIGMOD</acronym> Conference. Version 1, described in
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<xref linkend="ston90a"/>, was released to a few external users in
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June 1989. In response to a critique of the first rule system
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(<xref linkend="ston89"/>), the rule system was redesigned (<xref
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linkend="ston90b"/>), and Version 2 was released in June 1990 with
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the new rule system. Version 3 appeared in 1991 and added support
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for multiple storage managers, an improved query executor, and a
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rewritten rule system. For the most part, subsequent releases
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until <productname>Postgres95</productname> (see below) focused on
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portability and reliability.
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</para>
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<para>
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<productname>POSTGRES</productname> has been used to implement many
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different research and production applications. These include: a
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financial data analysis system, a jet engine performance monitoring
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package, an asteroid tracking database, a medical information
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database, and several geographic information systems.
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<productname>POSTGRES</productname> has also been used as an
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educational tool at several universities. Finally, Illustra
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Information Technologies (later merged into
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<ulink url="https://www.ibm.com/analytics/informix"><productname>Informix</productname></ulink>,
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which is now owned by <ulink
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url="https://www.ibm.com/">IBM</ulink>) picked up the code and
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commercialized it. In late 1992,
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<productname>POSTGRES</productname> became the primary data manager
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for the
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<ulink url="http://meteora.ucsd.edu/s2k/s2k_home.html">
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Sequoia 2000 scientific computing project</ulink>.
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</para>
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<para>
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The size of the external user community nearly doubled during 1993.
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It became increasingly obvious that maintenance of the prototype
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code and support was taking up large amounts of time that should
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have been devoted to database research. In an effort to reduce
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this support burden, the Berkeley
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<productname>POSTGRES</productname> project officially ended with
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Version 4.2.
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</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="history-postgres95">
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<title><productname>Postgres95</productname></title>
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<indexterm zone="history-postgres95">
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<primary>Postgres95</primary>
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</indexterm>
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<para>
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In 1994, Andrew Yu and Jolly Chen added an SQL language interpreter
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to <productname>POSTGRES</productname>. Under a new name,
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<productname>Postgres95</productname> was subsequently released to
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the web to find its own way in the world as an open-source
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descendant of the original <productname>POSTGRES</productname>
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Berkeley code.
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</para>
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<para>
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<productname>Postgres95</productname> code was completely ANSI C
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and trimmed in size by 25%. Many internal changes improved
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performance and
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maintainability. <productname>Postgres95</productname> release
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1.0.x ran about 30–50% faster on the Wisconsin Benchmark compared
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to <productname>POSTGRES</productname>, Version 4.2. Apart from
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bug fixes, the following were the major enhancements:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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The query language PostQUEL was replaced with
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<acronym>SQL</acronym> (implemented in the server). (Interface
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library <link linkend="libpq">libpq</link> was named after PostQUEL.)
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Subqueries
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were not supported until <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
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(see below), but they could be imitated in
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<productname>Postgres95</productname> with user-defined
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<acronym>SQL</acronym> functions. Aggregate functions were
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re-implemented. Support for the <literal>GROUP BY</literal>
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query clause was also added.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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A new program
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(<application>psql</application>) was provided for interactive
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SQL queries, which used <acronym>GNU</acronym>
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<application>Readline</application>. This largely superseded
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the old <application>monitor</application> program.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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A new front-end library, <filename>libpgtcl</filename>,
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supported <acronym>Tcl</acronym>-based clients. A sample shell,
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<command>pgtclsh</command>, provided new Tcl commands to
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interface <application>Tcl</application> programs with the
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<productname>Postgres95</productname> server.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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The large-object interface was overhauled. The inversion large
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objects were the only mechanism for storing large objects. (The
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inversion file system was removed.)
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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The instance-level rule system was removed. Rules were still
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available as rewrite rules.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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A short tutorial introducing regular <acronym>SQL</acronym>
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features as well as those of
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<productname>Postgres95</productname> was distributed with the
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source code
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<acronym>GNU</acronym> make (instead of <acronym>BSD</acronym>
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make) was used for the build. Also,
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<productname>Postgres95</productname> could be compiled with an
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unpatched <productname>GCC</productname> (data alignment of
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doubles was fixed).
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="history-postgresql">
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<title><productname>PostgreSQL</productname></title>
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<para>
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By 1996, it became clear that the name <quote>Postgres95</quote>
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would not stand the test of time. We chose a new name,
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<productname>PostgreSQL</productname>, to reflect the relationship
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between the original <productname>POSTGRES</productname> and the
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more recent versions with <acronym>SQL</acronym> capability. At
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the same time, we set the version numbering to start at 6.0,
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putting the numbers back into the sequence originally begun by the
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Berkeley <productname>POSTGRES</productname> project.
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</para>
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<para>
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Many people continue to refer to
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<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> as <quote>Postgres</quote>
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(now rarely in all capital letters) because of tradition or because
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it is easier to pronounce. This usage is widely accepted as a
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nickname or alias.
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</para>
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<para>
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The emphasis during development of
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<productname>Postgres95</productname> was on identifying and
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understanding existing problems in the server code. With
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<productname>PostgreSQL</productname>, the emphasis has shifted to
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augmenting features and capabilities, although work continues in
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all areas.
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</para>
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<para>
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Details about what has happened in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> since
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then can be found in <xref linkend="release"/>.
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</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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