Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting Started with
PostgreSQL
Before starting our journey with SQL, allow me to quickly go through the history of
PostgreSQL. It all starts from the University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1970s
with the aim of developing a relational database possessing object-oriented features.
They named it
Ingres
. Later on, around the mid 1980s, a team of core developers led
by Michael Stonebraker from the University of California started work on Ingres.
The team added core object-oriented features in Ingres and named the new version
PostgreSQL
.
This team was attached to the development of PostgreSQL for around 8 years.
During this time, they introduced object-oriented concepts, procedures, rules,
indexes, and types. In 1994, Andrew Yu and Jolly Chen replaced the Ingres-
based query language with the SQL query language. After this change, in 1995,
PostgreSQL was renamed Postgres95. In 1996, after entering the open source
world, Postgres95 went through multiple changes and new features such as
Multi
Version Concurrency Control
(
MVCC
), and built-in types were added. Over a
period of time, following the addition of new features and with the devoted work
of developers, Postgres95 achieved consistency and uniformity in code. They inally
renamed Postgres95 to PostgreSQL.
PostgreSQL is widely considered to be one of the most stable database servers
available today, with multiple features that include:
• A wide range of built-in types
• MVCC
• New SQL enhancements, including foreign keys, primary keys,
and constraints
• Open source code, maintained by a team of developers
