Function In the fifty years since SQL was first proposed, it has become the dominant query language for working with relational databases. As such, it supports the transactions that are critical to the functioning of government, business and the world's economy. However, like many other standards, the road to global dominance has not been straight, and in the early years of its gestation, the story could have been very different.
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The clue is in the name. Although the acronym may stand for Structured Query Language, it was first known as SEQUEL, a nod to QUEL, a rival language for addressing information in relational databases that was developed around the same time.
IBMers Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce wrote the paper "SEQUEL: A structured English query language" in 1974 as a way to address data in IBM's newly proposed System R, the first database to embody Edgar Codd's article [PDF] describing the relational model of database management.
Speaking to The Register, Chamberlin said Codd's approach was a departure from the prevailing thinking in computer systems from the 1970s and would require a new language.
