Forword
Like many technologies in the computer industry, the evolution of databases can be tracked back to research into automating office functions in the 1960s and 1970s. Firms discovered it was becoming far too expensive to hire people to do certain jobs such as storing and indexing files. They began investing in research into cheaper and more efficient mechanical solutions.
In 1970, an IBM researcher named Ted Codd published the first article on relational databases. It outlined an approach that used relational calculus and algebra to allow non-technical users to store and retrieve large amounts of information. Codd envisaged a system where the user would be able to access information stored in tables with “natural language” commands.
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