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submitted 20 hours ago by not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev

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[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 50 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

SQL is pronounced 'Sequel' because it was originaly SEQUEL.

SQL was initially developed at IBM by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce after learning about the relational model from Edgar F. Codd[12] in the early 1970s.[13] This version, initially called SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language), was designed to manipulate and retrieve data stored in IBM's original quasirelational database management system, System R, which a group at IBM San Jose Research Laboratory had developed during the 1970s.[13]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

It then later evolved, and changed from being an acronym into an initialism, kind of, sort of, mostly for people who are unaware of the etymology.

'Sequel' is quite literally the tradtional way to pronounce it.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 7 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

That would explain why it's only American to I've ever heard referred to it like that. Every European developer I've ever heard referred to it as always called it SQL as would I.

Other DNS is definitely Dennis from now on.

[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 hours ago

I too am going to call DNS 'Dennis' from now on, lol.

Yeah I've had some discussions over time with the whole SQL vs Sequel thing, and what I realized was that...

Well basically, I learned 'Sequel' from a bunch of old timers in the Seattle area.

The kind of people who had been writing COBOL since they got back from Vietnam, people who'd actually worked at IBM, still acted like Microsoft was an 'upstart', people who'd just offhand tell me about the one time they got 'deployed' to Saudi Arabia to flash a compromised BIOS onto hardware destined to be used in Saddam's air defense network, prior to the Gulf War.

So, they actually literally were there back when SEQUEL was invented.