Is it Sequel or S Q L Server, Interview Gripes
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I have been developing applications using SQL Server for over ten years, and I have ALWAYS called it Sequel Server... not spelled out s q l server. Sequel is elegant, it rolls off the tongue. I read in a sidebar in one of my old database programming with VB 4 books a little history of the word and proper pronunciation, and the authors concurred that it was appropriate to call it 'sequel' as the original Sequel programming language was long dead. Every Microsoft employee I have ever met calls the product Sequel Server, and it is their damn product, if they don't know how to say it, who does? What does the rest of the community think? S Q L Server or Sequel Server? Whenever I hear someone say S Q L Server... I think 'Newbie'. In addition to saying Sequel, I also have a huge gripe with wannabes using an acronym in spoken English as opposed to saying what it is they are trying to say in the first place. I say all this because I had a telephone interview today for a position roughly 50% SQL DBA, the other half maintenance and development of new and existing C# web based applications. In the interview, I was struck by the amount of questions involving the use of said acronyms, instead of focusing on object oriented programming methodologies, use of best practices in coding, etc. Nothing about development methodologies, documentation, configuration management, just "Do you know what AWE Is?" "Do you know what IDLASM is?," and a bunch of other esoteric minutia, to which I simply replied, "Nope." I actually had a clue, but in the past when I have gotten these questions, it was because the person asking them didn't have a clue. The last straw in this interview: the majority of my ASP.NET development experience (about 4000-5000 hours worth) was spent developing IBuySpy Portal & DotNetNuke modules. The incumbent interviewer told me that at his particular company they didn't embrace such open source projects. Furthermore, they were in the planning stages of purchasing a 'real,' 'enterprise grade' CMS, and I would not be able to use such petty, insignificant tools in my role as lead ASP.NET web developer there. He didn't exactly use the words petty or insignificant, but he may as well have with his condescending tone. I was reminded of Scott Adam's writing in the Dilbert Principle where he discusses how to properly train ones replacement, in how it's very important to leave out that one important detail about ones job to ones replacement, such that when the s#$t hits the fan, everybody wistfully thinks back to w
During the interview process, I always knew that I had a prospective problem child as an applicant when they mispronounced SQL Server so that it sounded like a subsequent movie. Just because some pointy-headed mad scientist type want to call it SEQUEL to start with, doesn't mean that you pronounce the acronym that way. SQL rhymes with SEE-KILL or SEE-KULL, depending on whether you're a fan of Robert E. Howard or not. I have the same problem with wacky folks who seem to think that tuple rhymes with pupil. IT DOESN'T!! Tuple rhymes with couple, people, please... :laugh: Of course, I also agree with the wise man who said that anyone who has a very strong opinion on anything is probably wrong... which may or may not include me. YMMV :cool:
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Sequel, because it's what other people say. I worked for some time with someone who insisted on calling C++ 'C double plus'. That always griped me. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++
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While most people I know say Sequel Server, I've heard people say EsQueueEl Server too - specially in India. Does it really matter what they say? Most people say C-Sharp, a few say C-Hash, and maybe there are a few odd people who say C-Pound. On a related note, I always say Hash-Include for #include and Hash-Using for #using, but I bet most Americans say Pound-Include and Pound-Using. If someone decides not to hire me because my syntax pronunciation doesn't meet his expectations - I'll probably not give a damn! Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications.-- modified at 21:29 Tuesday 16th May, 2006
Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
Most people say C-Sharp, a few say C-Hash, and maybe there are a few odd people who say C-Pound.
C octothorp octothorp; (sometimes spelled) octothorpe 1. The official name for the numbers sign that looks like: # 2. The symbol # on a telephone or keyboard. 3. A typographic symbol having two vertical lines intersected by two horizontal lines. It is also called the crosshatch, hash, numeral sign and number sign; in the U. S. it is commonly called the pound sign; especially, to designate the symbol as used on digital telephone dials, but this can be confusing to Europeans who think of the pound sign as the symbol for the British pound. It is commonly used as a symbol for the word number; as in #36 = "number thirty-six". Often seen but seldom found in a dictionary The printer's traditional name for a very common mark, the #. You probably know this glyph by one of its other names: the number, numeral, or pound sign; or, if you're a developer, the hash. The word "octothorp" is so obscure that isn't even in the Oxford English Dictionary (1st or 2nd editions). "Otherwise known as the numeral sign. It has also been used as a symbol for the pound avoirdupois, but this usage is now archaic. In cartography, it is also a symbol for village: eight fields around a central square, and this is the source of its name. Octothorp means eight fields." Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style; 2nd edition, 1996; Hartley & Marks, Publishers, Point Roberts, WA; Vancouver, BC, Canada, p. 282. :) ---------- There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them. - Alexander Ledru-Rollin
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I pronounce it SEQUEL... My director pronounces it "Squirrl".. drive me nuts... I always ask him "huh?" --- Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
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I have been developing applications using SQL Server for over ten years, and I have ALWAYS called it Sequel Server... not spelled out s q l server. Sequel is elegant, it rolls off the tongue. I read in a sidebar in one of my old database programming with VB 4 books a little history of the word and proper pronunciation, and the authors concurred that it was appropriate to call it 'sequel' as the original Sequel programming language was long dead. Every Microsoft employee I have ever met calls the product Sequel Server, and it is their damn product, if they don't know how to say it, who does? What does the rest of the community think? S Q L Server or Sequel Server? Whenever I hear someone say S Q L Server... I think 'Newbie'. In addition to saying Sequel, I also have a huge gripe with wannabes using an acronym in spoken English as opposed to saying what it is they are trying to say in the first place. I say all this because I had a telephone interview today for a position roughly 50% SQL DBA, the other half maintenance and development of new and existing C# web based applications. In the interview, I was struck by the amount of questions involving the use of said acronyms, instead of focusing on object oriented programming methodologies, use of best practices in coding, etc. Nothing about development methodologies, documentation, configuration management, just "Do you know what AWE Is?" "Do you know what IDLASM is?," and a bunch of other esoteric minutia, to which I simply replied, "Nope." I actually had a clue, but in the past when I have gotten these questions, it was because the person asking them didn't have a clue. The last straw in this interview: the majority of my ASP.NET development experience (about 4000-5000 hours worth) was spent developing IBuySpy Portal & DotNetNuke modules. The incumbent interviewer told me that at his particular company they didn't embrace such open source projects. Furthermore, they were in the planning stages of purchasing a 'real,' 'enterprise grade' CMS, and I would not be able to use such petty, insignificant tools in my role as lead ASP.NET web developer there. He didn't exactly use the words petty or insignificant, but he may as well have with his condescending tone. I was reminded of Scott Adam's writing in the Dilbert Principle where he discusses how to properly train ones replacement, in how it's very important to leave out that one important detail about ones job to ones replacement, such that when the s#$t hits the fan, everybody wistfully thinks back to w
There are at least two types of programmers. Those who have a field of expertise applicable to a well-defined project, vs. those who can understand the problem being addressed and can then evaluate the tools and solutions which might be considerations in solving the problem. Your commentary seems to put you into the second category. You'd probably never fit in a company that worries about correct pronunciation of acryonyms, so getting past the swamp of sadness without getting sucked in should be considered a plus. I run an engineering department, and here is my caveat. (or C.V.T., no just kidding) Both types of people are needed, but the second type are much harder to find.
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I say "Sequel" Server. But I pronounce MySQL as "My-S-Q-L". When I talk about the SQL syntax itself, I call it "S-Q-L". I think the pronunciation depends on the context.
I use these terms interchangeably. Why be standard when you can be interesting :) I also sometimes say "vehr kehr" instead of "var char", since it is Variable Character. I find it funny how that one is deliberately mispronounced by almost everyone in the industry.
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I have been developing applications using SQL Server for over ten years, and I have ALWAYS called it Sequel Server... not spelled out s q l server. Sequel is elegant, it rolls off the tongue. I read in a sidebar in one of my old database programming with VB 4 books a little history of the word and proper pronunciation, and the authors concurred that it was appropriate to call it 'sequel' as the original Sequel programming language was long dead. Every Microsoft employee I have ever met calls the product Sequel Server, and it is their damn product, if they don't know how to say it, who does? What does the rest of the community think? S Q L Server or Sequel Server? Whenever I hear someone say S Q L Server... I think 'Newbie'. In addition to saying Sequel, I also have a huge gripe with wannabes using an acronym in spoken English as opposed to saying what it is they are trying to say in the first place. I say all this because I had a telephone interview today for a position roughly 50% SQL DBA, the other half maintenance and development of new and existing C# web based applications. In the interview, I was struck by the amount of questions involving the use of said acronyms, instead of focusing on object oriented programming methodologies, use of best practices in coding, etc. Nothing about development methodologies, documentation, configuration management, just "Do you know what AWE Is?" "Do you know what IDLASM is?," and a bunch of other esoteric minutia, to which I simply replied, "Nope." I actually had a clue, but in the past when I have gotten these questions, it was because the person asking them didn't have a clue. The last straw in this interview: the majority of my ASP.NET development experience (about 4000-5000 hours worth) was spent developing IBuySpy Portal & DotNetNuke modules. The incumbent interviewer told me that at his particular company they didn't embrace such open source projects. Furthermore, they were in the planning stages of purchasing a 'real,' 'enterprise grade' CMS, and I would not be able to use such petty, insignificant tools in my role as lead ASP.NET web developer there. He didn't exactly use the words petty or insignificant, but he may as well have with his condescending tone. I was reminded of Scott Adam's writing in the Dilbert Principle where he discusses how to properly train ones replacement, in how it's very important to leave out that one important detail about ones job to ones replacement, such that when the s#$t hits the fan, everybody wistfully thinks back to w
I've been using the MS product for quite some time (and Oracle and others before then), and I've always intentionally spelled it out when I say it (S-Q-L). The reason was/is simple to me: Sequel *was* a product at one point. To call SQL "sequel" is to imply that I'm talking about an actual product and not a structured query language. :-) Yes, so Sequel is a dead product... the principle still applies. ;-) BTW, do you say "asp net" or spell out "A-S-P dot net"?
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I have been developing applications using SQL Server for over ten years, and I have ALWAYS called it Sequel Server... not spelled out s q l server. Sequel is elegant, it rolls off the tongue. I read in a sidebar in one of my old database programming with VB 4 books a little history of the word and proper pronunciation, and the authors concurred that it was appropriate to call it 'sequel' as the original Sequel programming language was long dead. Every Microsoft employee I have ever met calls the product Sequel Server, and it is their damn product, if they don't know how to say it, who does? What does the rest of the community think? S Q L Server or Sequel Server? Whenever I hear someone say S Q L Server... I think 'Newbie'. In addition to saying Sequel, I also have a huge gripe with wannabes using an acronym in spoken English as opposed to saying what it is they are trying to say in the first place. I say all this because I had a telephone interview today for a position roughly 50% SQL DBA, the other half maintenance and development of new and existing C# web based applications. In the interview, I was struck by the amount of questions involving the use of said acronyms, instead of focusing on object oriented programming methodologies, use of best practices in coding, etc. Nothing about development methodologies, documentation, configuration management, just "Do you know what AWE Is?" "Do you know what IDLASM is?," and a bunch of other esoteric minutia, to which I simply replied, "Nope." I actually had a clue, but in the past when I have gotten these questions, it was because the person asking them didn't have a clue. The last straw in this interview: the majority of my ASP.NET development experience (about 4000-5000 hours worth) was spent developing IBuySpy Portal & DotNetNuke modules. The incumbent interviewer told me that at his particular company they didn't embrace such open source projects. Furthermore, they were in the planning stages of purchasing a 'real,' 'enterprise grade' CMS, and I would not be able to use such petty, insignificant tools in my role as lead ASP.NET web developer there. He didn't exactly use the words petty or insignificant, but he may as well have with his condescending tone. I was reminded of Scott Adam's writing in the Dilbert Principle where he discusses how to properly train ones replacement, in how it's very important to leave out that one important detail about ones job to ones replacement, such that when the s#$t hits the fan, everybody wistfully thinks back to w
I've always called it "Sequel Server". I call the SQL language "Sequel" also. I've seen this cause confusion with interviewers. If I put "SQL" on my resume they think I mean "SQL Server" when I mean "Standard Query Language". So I've instead said on my resume "SQL (Standard Query Language)" to distinguish from "SQL Server". ---Mark mmille10@comcast.net
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I have been developing applications using SQL Server for over ten years, and I have ALWAYS called it Sequel Server... not spelled out s q l server. Sequel is elegant, it rolls off the tongue. I read in a sidebar in one of my old database programming with VB 4 books a little history of the word and proper pronunciation, and the authors concurred that it was appropriate to call it 'sequel' as the original Sequel programming language was long dead. Every Microsoft employee I have ever met calls the product Sequel Server, and it is their damn product, if they don't know how to say it, who does? What does the rest of the community think? S Q L Server or Sequel Server? Whenever I hear someone say S Q L Server... I think 'Newbie'. In addition to saying Sequel, I also have a huge gripe with wannabes using an acronym in spoken English as opposed to saying what it is they are trying to say in the first place. I say all this because I had a telephone interview today for a position roughly 50% SQL DBA, the other half maintenance and development of new and existing C# web based applications. In the interview, I was struck by the amount of questions involving the use of said acronyms, instead of focusing on object oriented programming methodologies, use of best practices in coding, etc. Nothing about development methodologies, documentation, configuration management, just "Do you know what AWE Is?" "Do you know what IDLASM is?," and a bunch of other esoteric minutia, to which I simply replied, "Nope." I actually had a clue, but in the past when I have gotten these questions, it was because the person asking them didn't have a clue. The last straw in this interview: the majority of my ASP.NET development experience (about 4000-5000 hours worth) was spent developing IBuySpy Portal & DotNetNuke modules. The incumbent interviewer told me that at his particular company they didn't embrace such open source projects. Furthermore, they were in the planning stages of purchasing a 'real,' 'enterprise grade' CMS, and I would not be able to use such petty, insignificant tools in my role as lead ASP.NET web developer there. He didn't exactly use the words petty or insignificant, but he may as well have with his condescending tone. I was reminded of Scott Adam's writing in the Dilbert Principle where he discusses how to properly train ones replacement, in how it's very important to leave out that one important detail about ones job to ones replacement, such that when the s#$t hits the fan, everybody wistfully thinks back to w
I've been in the database industry for approaching 30 years and "SQL" has had mixed pronunciation since shortly after it came out of System R at IBM Research. I once asked Jim Gray about the original intent, but can't remember his answer. I think it was supposed to be S Q L. Certainly inside the SQL Server group at Microsoft (of which I'm a former General Manager and Architect) and amongst the many ex-Sybase (where the SQL Server name originated) developers I know the usage is almost always "sequel". I personally use an 90/10 mix of sequel and S Q L when referring to the language, but the product name should be pronounced "sequel server". Hal Berenson, President PredictableIT, LLC http://www.predictableit.com
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I've been in the database industry for approaching 30 years and "SQL" has had mixed pronunciation since shortly after it came out of System R at IBM Research. I once asked Jim Gray about the original intent, but can't remember his answer. I think it was supposed to be S Q L. Certainly inside the SQL Server group at Microsoft (of which I'm a former General Manager and Architect) and amongst the many ex-Sybase (where the SQL Server name originated) developers I know the usage is almost always "sequel". I personally use an 90/10 mix of sequel and S Q L when referring to the language, but the product name should be pronounced "sequel server". Hal Berenson, President PredictableIT, LLC http://www.predictableit.com