Re: Two Flyers - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

On Saturday 10 July 2004 08:48, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> Of course, east Germans being relatively proficient in Russian, I was
> immediately corrected.  So next time someone chooses a non-obvious name
> for a project, let us know what it means beforehand. :-)

Back when Vince was doing the website, he sent me a tarball of various forms
of slonik.  I think that included the raytracer source.  I think I still have
it lying around...yes, I do.  It contains four files:  ele_blue.ppm (117K),
ele_gray.ppm (67K), a Makefile, and pg_diamond.pov (2.4K).

At that time, I did a little research into the issue, and found what Jan has
posted.  So, about three years ago I was aware of the meaning, not that that
is worth anything... :-)

In any case, I much prefer the Slonik logo for web presentations, as it dates
way back, is unique (that is, there are no other elephants inside of diamonds
being used by any other project (or political party, in the case of the USA))
and looks really cool.  Work could be done to make it print better, I'm sure.

Slightly off the topic,  I still remember the logo being the elephant breaking
through the brick wall... And before that, it was the word 'PostgreSQL'
breaking through the brick wall.  Unfortunately there was a time in 1998 and
1999 that we are not archived on the WayBack Machine; the 'PostgreSQL'
breaking through is there as of May 4, 1998, but the page for Nov 11, 1998
comes up with a 'page not in archive' blurb.  The next archived page is Oct
12, 1999, which has the slonik logo, but had removed the wall.  That page
also blurbs about our being the Linux World Editor's choice database for
1999... Incidentally, we are the Linux Journal Editor's choice RDBMS for 2004
as well, according to my LJ I just received in the mail.
Hmmm, this isn't the first year, though, is it?

One of the most embarassing blurbs I remember, though, was at the 6.5 release
(which is in the period of time not archived, incidentally) that said the 6.5
release marked the PostgreSQL team's 'final mastery' of the codebase.  I did
find the blurb in a History document separately archived.  See the page
http://web.archive.org/web/20021001222155/www.ca.postgresql.org/docs/devhistory.html
where it says "Every release is now a major improvement over the last.  Our
upcoming 6.5 release marks the development team's final mastery of the source
code we inherited from Berkeley.  Finally, every code module is understood by
at least one development team member.  We  are now easily adding major
features, thanks to the increasing size and experience of our world-wide
development team.  Like most open-source projects, we don't know how many
people are using our software, but our increased  functionality, visibility
and mailing list traffic clearly point to continued growth for PostgreSQL. "
Since this 'history' document says 'upcoming 6.5 release' that would date it
in the spring of 1999.  So it should now read 'PreHistory' of
PostgreSQL... :-)  Now, the blurb, in context, is a true statement, because
the 6.5 release really was the breakthrough release for PostgreSQL.  But it
sure did sound a little arrogant to say 'final mastery'.....

And I think Jan's project's name, which literally means 'elephants', is very
nice, particularly given the vast contributions of one of my favorite
Russians, Vadim.  He did a bunch of heavy lifting for this project.
Subselects, MVCC, and WAL.  Three very large features, three complicated
codebases.  One greatly appreciated Russian.  And Jan, I got it when you
first announced it, and thought it was a hoot (that is, nicely, pun-ily,
funny).

But, having said all that, I am not a fan of the cartoon elephant.
--
Lamar Owen
Director of Information Technology
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC  28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu