初探The History of Database

Overview

More and more databases and various types of databases are used. I feel that it is necessary to understand the history of database development, especially what is the pain point that the existing database cannot solve at the time when each database appeared?
Database

A database is an organized collection of data, generally stored and accessed electronically from a computer system.

The database management system (DBMS) is the software that interacts with end users, applications, and database itself to capture and analyze the data.

Computer scientists may classify database-management systems according to the database models that they support.
Database Model

A database model is a type of data model that determines the logical structure and fundamentally determines in which manner data can be stored, organized and manipulated.
Data Model

If we summarize the data model progress in terms of the Turing Awards related to data modeling, we get this picture:
1. 1973: Charles Bachman with “The Prorgammer as Navigator”;
2. 1981: E.F. Codd with “Relational Database: A Practical Foundation for Productivity”;
3. 2001: Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard for ideas fundamental to the emergence of object-oriented programming;
4. 2014: Michael Stonebraker with “The Land Sharkx are on the Sqauwk Box”;
History

The first computer database was built in the 1960s, but the history of databases as we know them, really begins in 1970.
1960s, Navigational DBMS:Hierarchy & Network Model

The introduction of the term database coincided with the availablity of directly-access storage (disk and drums) from the mid-1960s onwards.

Charles Bachman, author of Integrated Data Store(IDS), founded the Database Task Group within CODASYL, the group responsible for the creation and standardization of COBOL.

In 1971, the Database Task Group delevered their standard, which generally became known as the CODASYL approach.

Later systems added B-trees to provide alternate access paths.

The Programmer as Navigator

IBM had their own DBMS in 1966, known as Information Management System (IMS). It used a strict hierarchy for its model of data navigation instead of CODASYL’s network model.

IBM develped hierarchical model in the 1960s:

Scientists at the Conference on Data Systems Languages(CODASYL) released a publication that described the network model:
1970s, Relational DBMS: Relational Model

Edgar F.Codd worked at IBM in San Jose, California, in one of their offshoot offices that was primarily involved in the development of hard disk systems.

He was unhappy with the navigational model of the CODASYL approach, notably the lack of a “search” facility.

A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks; 1970 June
Intergrated Approach

In the 1970s and 1980s, attempts were made to build database systems with integrated hardware and software, for providing higher performance at a lower cost.
Late 1970s, SQL DBMS

IBM started working on a prototype system loosely based on Codd’s concepts as System R which was the first implementation of SQL in the early 1970s.

In the 1977, Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates formed a company in California called Software Development Laboratories (SDL) which renamed to Relational Software, Inc(RSI) in 1979 and Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982, after reading about IBM’s System R Database. They aimed to create a database that is compatible with System R.
1980s, on the desktop

The 1980s ushered in the age of desktop computing.

The new computers empowered their users database softwares like dBASE , whose creator C.Wayne Ratliff stated: “dBASE was different from programs like BASIC, C, FORTRAN, and COBOL in that a lot of the dirty work had already been done.”

dBASE was one of the top selling software titles in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Towards the end of the 80s, Microsoft developed a database for the OS/2 platform called SQL Server 1.0. In 1993, they ported this to the Windows NT platform.
1990s, object-oriented

In 1995, the first version of MySQL was released by a Swedish company - MySQL AB. which born the open-source culture.

MySQL AB was eventually acquired by Sun Microsystems which was subsequently acquired by Oracle.

When Oracle acquired MySQL, a founder of MySQL project made a fork named MariaDB.

The 1990s, along with a rise in object-oriented programming, programmers and designes began to treat the data in their databases as objects.
2000s, NoSQL and NewSQL

NoSQL (Not only SQL), the name has existed since the late 1960s, but only coined in the early 21st centry, triggered by the needs of Web 2.0 companies.

NoSQL databases are increasingly used in big data and real-time web applications.

Web1.0: users received and ingested contect created by webmasters and their teams;

Web2.0: user-generated content and a more user-friendly internet for everyone.
Summary about severl models

The main difference between the hierarchical model and the network model is that the network model allows each record to have more than one parent and child record.

The main advantange of the relational model is that it provides consistency in the data.