MSQL
Encyclopedia
mSQL or Mini SQL is a historically important lightweight database management system
from Hughes Technologies.
interface between the application and the database management system, despite the fact that at the time there was no free or inexpensive SQL database management implementation available. Hughes therefore developed a translation program which provided an SQL interface to the free Postgres DBMS (which did not use SQL). This product was named miniSQL, or mSQL. In time it became clear that Postgres did not perform adequately on the low-specification systems used to run Minerva, so mSQL developed into a lightweight database management system in its own right, implementing a limited subset of the SQL standard, but performing well on minimally specified hardware.
mSQL was the first low-cost SQL-based database management system. Combined with the free Linux
operating system, the availability of relatively powerful low-cost PC hardware, and the development of world wide web
standards and technologies, mSQL was an important factor in the early development of interactive, dynamic web applications, particularly in the period 1994-1997, after which it was increasingly supplanted by the more highly featured MySQL
. mSQL had a large and widespread install base by the late 1990s.
form, and being strongly associated with open source
software, mSQL itself has never been offered under an open source license.
mSQL is provided free for non-commercial use. A typical license for commercial use in 1997 would cost $170, compared to a "five-digit purchase price" for its full-featured competitors.
arose to fill that void. By 1999, MySQL had surpassed mSQL in popularity and today mSQL has less visibility. At this time the database system is more often licensed by other companies for use in their products than used by end-users directly. mSQL is actively maintained and developed primarily to support its licensees and internal use within Hughes Technologies products and projects. It is still provided under a license that allows its use free of charge for non-commercial, educational and charitable activities. mSQL 3.9 was released in February 2011.
Database management system
A database management system is a software package with computer programs that control the creation, maintenance, and use of a database. It allows organizations to conveniently develop databases for various applications by database administrators and other specialists. A database is an integrated...
from Hughes Technologies.
History
In 1993-94 David Hughes developed a network monitoring and management system called "Minerva". The design of this system required a database management system to store its configuration and working data. To enable future portability, Hughes elected to use an SQLSQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
interface between the application and the database management system, despite the fact that at the time there was no free or inexpensive SQL database management implementation available. Hughes therefore developed a translation program which provided an SQL interface to the free Postgres DBMS (which did not use SQL). This product was named miniSQL, or mSQL. In time it became clear that Postgres did not perform adequately on the low-specification systems used to run Minerva, so mSQL developed into a lightweight database management system in its own right, implementing a limited subset of the SQL standard, but performing well on minimally specified hardware.
mSQL was the first low-cost SQL-based database management system. Combined with the free Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating system, the availability of relatively powerful low-cost PC hardware, and the development of world wide web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
standards and technologies, mSQL was an important factor in the early development of interactive, dynamic web applications, particularly in the period 1994-1997, after which it was increasingly supplanted by the more highly featured MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
. mSQL had a large and widespread install base by the late 1990s.
License
Despite being offered in source codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
form, and being strongly associated with open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software, mSQL itself has never been offered under an open source license.
mSQL is provided free for non-commercial use. A typical license for commercial use in 1997 would cost $170, compared to a "five-digit purchase price" for its full-featured competitors.
Current status
By 1996, development on mSQL began to stagnate and MySQLMySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
arose to fill that void. By 1999, MySQL had surpassed mSQL in popularity and today mSQL has less visibility. At this time the database system is more often licensed by other companies for use in their products than used by end-users directly. mSQL is actively maintained and developed primarily to support its licensees and internal use within Hughes Technologies products and projects. It is still provided under a license that allows its use free of charge for non-commercial, educational and charitable activities. mSQL 3.9 was released in February 2011.
Host languages
mSQL originally supported several host languages:- CC (programming language)C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, included with the software - PerlPerlPerl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
- JavaJava (programming language)Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
via mSQL-JDBCMSQL-JDBCmSQL-JDBC is an Open Source Type IV JDBC driver for the mSQL database engine created by George Reese. It is written 100% in the Java programming language and uses the native mSQL network protocols to talk to mSQL. The driver supports as much of the JDBC specification as the mSQL database will... - DelphiBorland DelphiEmbarcadero Delphi is an integrated development environment for console, desktop graphical, web, and mobile applications.Delphi's compilers use its own Object Pascal dialect of Pascal and generate native code for 32- and 64-bit Windows operating systems, as well as 32-bit Mac OS X and iOS...
- Tcl/Tk
- PHPPHPPHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
See also
- mSQL-JDBCMSQL-JDBCmSQL-JDBC is an Open Source Type IV JDBC driver for the mSQL database engine created by George Reese. It is written 100% in the Java programming language and uses the native mSQL network protocols to talk to mSQL. The driver supports as much of the JDBC specification as the mSQL database will...
(aka Soul) JDBC driver for mSQL - List of relational database management systems
- Comparison of relational database management systemsComparison of relational database management systemsThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of relational database management systems. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date...