IBM Computer pioneer, dead at 79, revolutionized database system

Mercury News ^ | 4/20/03 | Lisa M. Krieger

[NormsRevenge]

Edgar F. Codd, an IBM computer pioneer who created the ``relational database model'' that underlies a $7 billion industry of storing the world's online business data, died of heart failure at home Friday in Williams Island, Fla. He was 79.

[HAL9000]

E. F. Codd was a giant in the industry.

[HAL9000]

Codd's '13 Rules'

[sinkspur]

E. F. Codd was a giant in the industry.

The father of DB2.

Too bad he did not live to see the revolution that XML will bring to database technology.

"Any-to-any."

[1stFreedom]

Well, if he saw SQL Server 2000, then he did.

[kezekiel]

My old boss, who was trying to build a commission tracking system in a flat-file database, couldn't understand what I was talking about when I was trying to explain relational databases. When he got it, it was like the lights were turned on.

One of the great computing innovations, indeed.

[The FRugitive]

What will XML bring? What's the big deal with XML?

[HAL9000]

fyi

[sinkspur]

What's the big deal with XML?

XML (Extensible Markup Language) applications communicate with each other, independent of platform or format.

HP/UX XML applications will transfer data to IBM XML web-based applications via a style sheet.

Operating system, database independence is a very big deal!

[killermosquito]

I wouldn't have a job today if it weren't for Codd.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Operating system, database independence is a very big deal!

One of the Holy Grails!

[Hank Rearden]

I wouldn't have a job today if it weren't for Codd.

Careful with those simple extrapolations. That's like saying if Thomas Edison had never been born we'd all still be reading by lantern light.

[RichInOC]

Dr. Codd's son Dave and I both went to UC Riverside, and we were and are fraternity brothers. I was a local boy and Dave of course came down from the Bay Area, so I didn't really have much contact with his father, but I got to know Dave quite well...bright, very funny (if a lot less dry than his dad apparently was), a very good guy. I think it goes without saying that my thoughts and prayers, and I'm sure those of our Phi Kap brothers from UCR, are with Dave and his family tonight.

[Fred Mertz]

RIP Edgar F. Codd and thank you for your valuable contributions.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I actually installed the early QBE (IBM Yorktown) package at a customer location .

It could eat up a mainframe !

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[NormsRevenge]

to db or not to db .. this is the question that haunts a man's soul (sorry! :-\)

I never met a db I couldn't crash. ;-)

[TopQuark]

The father of DB2.

WEll, SQL/DS actually. IBM never marketed it seriously.

[sinkspur]

WEll, SQL/DS actually. IBM never marketed it seriously.

Not enough money in it.

[alnitak]

COMMIT TRANSACTION

[Mr. K]

XML is the trendy new way to do 20 year old technology - i.e. 'text' file transfers of data.

It is just repackaged with a new name, the Linux people have grabbed hold of it as new wisdom (God Save Us from the Linux 'gurus') and it has become a buzz word.

It is text file transfer of data- nothing more (OK it has 'TAGS' around data telling you what it is... TEXT tags you have to parse - or, in other words, even MORE text data...)

[Incorrigible]

I read my first Codd and Date book in 1988, a year after I got out of school as an EE. There wasn't a lot of hardware work going on at the time so I was a bit adrift. Then a guy at work gave me the book and asked me to help him with his dBase III project. My career and life where altered at that moment.
 

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
  -
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) in: Letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675/1676

 

RIP

[PatrioticAmerican]

319-hehe.

[PatrioticAmerican]

#19 - hehe.

In 1985, I was introduced to SQL. We used it for tracking technical training programs at AF Space Command. I knew then it wasn't just a powerfully easy language, but one that could change the mainfame mentality. It certainly did.

Most people can't keep up in a conversation with smart people and denounce then as "flighty". Fortunately, this one man had an idea someone paid attention to.

[xm177e2]

I wouldn't have a job today if it weren't for Codd.

If it weren't for Codd's work, wouldn't we need even more computer people, to manage a huge number of crappy databases?

[dirtboy]

My old boss, who was trying to build a commission tracking system in a flat-file database, couldn't understand what I was talking about when I was trying to explain relational databases. When he got it, it was like the lights were turned on.

There are a fair number of programmers, unfortunately, who simply can't envision relational data, and try to shoehorn everything into a flat-file format.

[Mr. Jeeves]

It is text file transfer of data- nothing more...

I totally agree - XML is 95% hype. Most of the same things could be done by any clever programmer with CSV files.

E.F. Codd was a giant - he will be missed.

[TomServo]

There are a fair number of programmers, unfortunately, who simply can't envision relational data, and try to shoehorn everything into a flat-file format.

I call them wannabe's...;-)

[Mr. K]

and it could be done EASIER too, I bet...

[stainlessbanner]

Boyce-Codd Model?