Re: Pre-relational, post-relational, 1968 CODASYL "Survey of Data Base Systems"

Dawn M. Wolthuis wrote:

> "Ken North" <knorth2_at_deletethis.yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:c6h8uh$m5j$1_at_ngspool-d02.news.aol.com...
>

[Ken's post snipped but just a comment ...

Darn Ken, you're older than I am and I'm three days older than dirt! :)

>
>
> Sweet! I've been tracking down pre-SQL database information and this is
> most helpful. I haven't tracked ADABAS to its origins, but might that be
> somewhere in the pre-relational? I, too, laugh at the "post-relational"
> claims, often used with MUMPS or PICK products (even by companies like IBM
> who ought to know better, eh?).
> --dawn
>
>

I had some info on ADABAS 20 or so years ago. It was a product by a German company, but I don't remember which one. I'll look up in the attic to see if I can find it. I know it ended with -AG, but that's the German equivalent of "Inc."

As I recall, ADABAS was a very interesting product. If you were using a hierarchical model (like IMS), you could use ADABAS. If you were using a CODASYL (network) model you could use ADABAS. If you had a relational model you could use ADABAS! (This was circa 1983-5, I don't recall how old it was at the time.)

You could also define repeating fields within your tables, as I recall, but memory is fuzzy.

The only reason we didn't use it back then was that it only ran on mainframes and we were limited to VAXen at the time.

-- 
"It is impossible to make anything foolproof
because fools are so ingenious"
  - A. Bloch