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> The PoststgreSQL project never fails to impress me. Except the name is a bit clunky and hard to write ;)
by babuskov 10y ago
> The PoststgreSQL project never fails to impress me.
Except the name is a bit clunky and hard to write ;)
- scardine 10y agoIf only a clunky name was the worst problem with some software (even closed source) we have to deal with.
- Grishnakh 10y agoSlightly clunky names are fine as long as they're somewhat cute or clever. Names are important because it's how we identify and remember things, and a catchy name (even if it seems a little ridiculous or clunky) is better than a boring, banal name if the catchy name is memorable. I'll take PostgreSQL's name (which I consider clever) any day over some name completely devoid of originality or thoughtfulness, such as most of the names Microsoft uses for its software.
- kbenson 10y agoYes, at least it's searchable. The current trend of using common words as names was ridiculous as of a few years ago. Now it's just painful. Someone's going to name their project "The" and I'm not sure I'll be able to remain civil at that point.
- teddyh 10y agoThere used to be a project named “THE”, but its name was changed to “Archy”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy
- tracker1 10y agoMicrosoft's naming (or lack of) is a mixed blessing.. usually combining "Microsoft" + term works... what sucks is when you search for anything "SQL" and you get a bunch of MS-SQL related links... really, T-SQL and MS-SQL should always be prefixed when referring to the vendor's product.
- rlpb 10y agoYou may call it Postgres: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/ProjectName https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/ProjectName
- DiabloD3 10y agoOr pg if the context is clear enough.
- klodolph 10y agoThat might be more than slightly confusing here on Hacker News.
- hashkb 10y agopsql? pgsql?
- masklinn 10y agoNeither works: psql is the bundled postgres shell and (pl/)pgsql is posgres's procedural SQL extension (inspired by Oracle/s pl/sql) so both are pretty ambiguous.
- systems 10y agopgsql is exclusive to postgresql, and from the context, it should very easy to know if you talking about the programming language or postgresql
- systems 10y agopg sequel or pg ess-queue-el are both very good, short, and difficult to confuse with another project or product i think psql refer specifically to the command line tool of pgsql
- personjerry 10y agoNow we wait for pg to release his Arc lisp based database system called pgsql
- ryanlol 10y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcXGepefvFI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcXGepefvFI
- logfromblammo 10y agoI see clunky names as neutral, as the reduction in search engine collisions usually balances the difficulty in typing.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- assface 10y agoIt's called Postgres because it was the second DBMS that Stonebraker started after Ingres. So it's "post Ingres", or "post gres"
- astrodust 10y agoThen they made it speak SQL, so it was called PostgreSQL, which some might confuse as "Postgre SQL".
- enave 10y agoMaybe, but it's a much better name than mysql. I feel like a little kid every time I say "my" anything.
- throwaway54665 10y agoFor the record, My is Lars Wirzenius's daughter.
- kirubakaran 10y ago"My" of MySQL is Monty's daughter. "He lives in Helsinki with his second wife Anna and daughter Maria (after whom MariaDB was named), and has a daughter My (after whom MySQL was named)[14] and a son Max (giving the name for MaxDB) from his first marriage" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Widenius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Widenius
- Grishnakh 10y agoAlso, I'm pretty sure most of us are mispronouncing MySQL: IIRC, "My" (the Finnish name of his daughter) is pronounced like English "Me".
- sluukkonen 10y agoThe y is pronounced like the ü in über.
- rpazyaquian 10y ago"MooSQL"
- sluukkonen 10y agoNot the American pronounciation!
- schoen 10y ago
- bsandert 10y ago> The PostststgreSQL project never fails to impress me. Let's see how many iterations we'll need for people to actually notice what was pointed out here ;)
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- blaze33 10y agoOn the other hand it makes for more relevant search results! Edit: did not see the typo at first though the word seemed longer than usual...
- craigkerstiens 10y agoA small bit of history from Tom Lane one of the biggest contributors to the project "Arguably, the 1996 decision to call it PostgreSQL instead of reverting to plain Postgres was the single worst mistake this project ever made." - https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/2693.1152762174@sss.pgh.pa.us https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/2693.1152762174@sss.pg...
- phaed 10y ago> It seems too late to change it now That's what they said in 1996. Then they said it again in 2006. In 2026 when its interwoven in all sorts of AI systems and still causing confusion, they will be looking back thinking why didn't they fix it back in 2017 when they still could. "Now" is always the right time, it's never too late.
- noisy_boy 10y agoGiven a choice, I would name it PostSQL.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mjibson 10y agoToo bad they didn't name it something non-controversial like cockroach.
- lsaferite 10y agoThe variations on the project name I've read in this thread alone are amusing. Three of them being: Postgre Postgreql PoststgreSQL