rfg@hound.UUCP (10/11/83)
.DS
The following material is the result of my query to net.general
of 21 Sept 83 concerning preferences for the term database or
data base. Identities have been removed to shield the innocent.
One flame was discarded which urged me to use net.nlang in future.
If your reply is not here, it was not received by me. Many thanks
to the net. The query did have a "serious business purpose."
-Dick Grantges BTL HO hound!rfg
Subject: Query: Database or Data Base
Date: Wed, 21-Sep-83 14:09:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: hound.309
Distribution: net.general
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
I am interested in facts and opinions regarding which
term is preferred by those most in a position to
know - "database" or "data base."
As far as I have been able to determine so far, the
term "database" *seems* to have become preferred by
those "in the business" sometime in the period 1978-80.
Is this correct? Which term do you use? Is there an
authority? Replies by mail or to net.followup will be
most appreciated to keep down the flames.
Thank you for your help.
Dick Grantges BTL HO
(hound!rfg)
Subject: Re: Query: Database or Data Base
In our documentation group here at Western Electric, we use data
base (two words). This is based on English usage, not computerese
usage.
Subject: Re: Query, etc.
Dick,
Hi! You asked about "database" vs. "data base." I've seen both used in the
literature. My personal preference is "data base," but that's more a matter
of taste than correctness. Both are accepted nearly everywhere (kind of like
VISA and Mastercard).
Subject: Re: Query: Database or Data Base
I prefer "database" but my secretary keeps telling me to
use "data base." (I also prefer my double quotes inside
my periods and commas, like ' "data base". ')
Subject: Re: Query: Database or Data Base
I have seen both database and data base in the titles
of textbooks on the subject.
James Martin uses data base. Chris Date and Gio Widerhold (sp?)
use database.
I think database is more commonly used by database professionals
and I, for one, prefer it. Somehow it just looks better and besides
its one less key stroke.
If the history of many other words which have gone from two
words to a hyphenated word to a single word has any relevance
here, then "database" will win out in the end.
Subject: database
Our company is in the database business. I have seen it written
both ways, but we encourage the use of "database" over "data base"
in our publications.
Subject: Re: Query: Database or Data Base
For what it's worth, I recently had the same question and decided
to look in manuals put out by Micro Data Base Systems to see how
they do it (since they are in the business). The answer is in
their name! Personally, I prefer the one-word version.
Subject: Database
I use and prefer it as one word. In the online information retrieval field,
that's almost exclusively the way it is.
Subject: Re: Query: Database or Data Base
According to Profssor Stanley Zdonik of Brown University,
either is acceptable, with Database increasing in use.
Professor Zdonik's specialty is database systems.
I have seen both in sales literature, but salesmen tend
to be unreliable sources of factual information.
Subject: Re: Query: Database or Data Base
I have usually seen the term database used.
A text by J.D. Ullman even uses it in the title
and other university CS departments seem to have
adopted the term as well. However, manuals and
other documents here use data base. I think it
may be because of their (our?) love for acronyms,
which should really only include the first letter
of words, and DB is a favorite.
Subject: Etymology of "Database"
I suggest that you try to find some documentation on the early (about 1967)
version of Honeywells "IDS" Integrated Data Store, developed by Charly Bachman.
If I remember correctly the term used there is "Database". IDS is the base of
the CODASYL DB standard.
At about the same time period I was developing Databases for USAF projects and
we always used the term Database. I think that the first time I ran into the
term was about 1963.
Subject: Database
ACM publication policy is database as one word, e.g., ACM Transactions on
Database Systems. My perception is that database is steadily gaining in usage
over data base.
Subject: Re: Query, etc.
The Database Technical Area (DTA) here at System Development Corporation
(SDC) uses "database". This isn't a concious decision on our part,
this is just the way that we do it, and we've been hacking databases
for ages.
Usually, "database" shrinks to just "D" when used in an acronym. The
exception is "DataBase Administrator (DBA)". Whether this is to keep
the DBA from being confused with the District Attorney, or because of
our obsession with Three Letter Abbreviations (TLAs).
One of our people just walked in, read my screen, and reminded me that
"Knowledge Based System (KBS)" is three words. I expect that in the
near future it will just two words.
I'm interested in the results of your survey. Thanks!!
P.S. I'd appreciate it if you'd ACK this message. I'm having a hard
time getting netnews to cooperate with me. TNX!!
I have always personally liked database, but the editorial experts at
Martim Marietta Aerospace told me (repeatedly) that the correct usage
was "data base". Fie on them.
I believe that the usage should fit the "common" usage, an inasmuch as
database connotes much more than simply data+base, I vote for a new
word. Its deserved.
Subject: Re: Query: Database or Data Base
I prefer database, and always have.
"Data base" is used by (a) the British, and (b) people who aren't
familiar with the field, and so think of simply a base of data, rather
than of a single concept.
Subject: Re: Query: Database or Data Base
We at Rhodnius Inc. use "database", mostly because itis considered as
a single entity, not as a 'base' which contains 'data'. Also it looks
nicer. (We are a database company.)
Subject: Re: Query, etc.
I prefer database espcelial especially relational database.
.DE