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Poll: Sequel or S-Q-L?

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Re: Poll: Sequel or S-Q-L?

#71

Post by alanh »

steveklabnik wrote: post #7
byoung2 wrote: post #4

I pronounce it "sequel" because it was originally called "SEQUEL" SQL was developed at IBM by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce in the early 1970s. This version, initially called SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language), was designed to manipulate and retrieve data stored in IBM's original relational database management system, System R, which a group at IBM San Jose Research Laboratory had developed during…

Funny, I pronounce it "ess queue ell" because it was originally called "SEQUEL". But now it's not. So it's distinct. It's interesting how two people can use the exact same justification to come to two totally different conclusions.

Psychologically, confirmation bias and/or plain ol’ rationalization may be at play

Re: Poll: Sequel or S-Q-L?

#72

Post by misterbwong »

techdan wrote: post #70

Number of syllables is the key factor. Sequel = 2 syllables. S-Q-L = 3. Sequel wins. Flows much better in conversation that way too.

Same reason here. As a side note, I've noticed that non-techies more often refer to it by S-Q-L so I'll change it up when I speak with them. I suppose pronouncing it "sequel" is more of an industry jargon type of thing.

Re: Poll: Sequel or S-Q-L?

#74

Post by slmbrhrt »

cmontgomeryb wrote: post #48
MC27 wrote: post #17

Never met anyone in real life that says sequel, well, except when referring to Microsoft products - perhaps a US thing? Another weird one I noticed is some people pronounce GIF as jiff, rather than giff.

Jiff is actually the correct, though rarely used, pronunciation

Doesn't the G in GIF stand for Graphics? You'd think the hard G would carry over into the acronym. Or is it because the G in GIF precedes an I and therefore gets pronounced as a soft G?

I'm reading too far into this. Why do you say Jiff is correct? For the record, I rarely hear "giff" myself.

Re: Poll: Sequel or S-Q-L?

#75

Post by stevefink »

Although it's a matter of opinion, I break it down like this:

1) SQL is an acronym 2) Acronyms are typically enunciated letter by letter, although it's not uncommon for them to be enunciated as a word either (ARP is read as a word, although it's an acronym for Address Resolution Protocol).

Since I see more acronyms get enunciated letter by letter vs complete word, I tend to say ES-QUE-EL.

Re: Poll: Sequel or S-Q-L?

#76

Post by city41 »

Pronunciation discrepancies are common in this field. How do you pronounce "char"? Or "cout" and "cin"? C++ was the first language I learned and I did so entirely through books, so I came up with my own pronunciations for everything. It wasn't until years later that I went to college and for the first time heard other people saying these terms orally. It was quite a shock to hear my professor say "char" (as in "charcoal"). That's pronounced "care" dammit! :)

I pronounce "cout" as "koot", and "cin" as "sin", as silly as that may be. Why? Just the terms my young virgin programming mind settled on, and there's just no way after all these years I can drop the habit.

Re: Poll: Sequel or S-Q-L?

#78

Post by city41 »

slmbrhrt wrote: post #74
cmontgomeryb wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jiff is actually the correct, though rarely used, pronunciation

Doesn't the G in GIF stand for Graphics? You'd think the hard G would carry over into the acronym. Or is it because the G in GIF precedes an I and therefore gets pronounced as a soft G? I'm reading too far into this. Why do you say Jiff is correct? For the record, I rarely hear "giff" myself.

If memory serves, the creator of the gif format was known to say "choosy programmers choose gif", a reference to the classic "choosy moms choose Jif" slogan. He always said the official pronunciation is "jiff". His name escapes me though.

Re: Poll: Sequel or S-Q-L?

#79

Post by cmontgomeryb »

slmbrhrt wrote: post #74
cmontgomeryb wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jiff is actually the correct, though rarely used, pronunciation

Doesn't the G in GIF stand for Graphics? You'd think the hard G would carry over into the acronym. Or is it because the G in GIF precedes an I and therefore gets pronounced as a soft G? I'm reading too far into this. Why do you say Jiff is correct? For the record, I rarely hear "giff" myself.

This is just copy-pasted from Wikipedia:

"The creators of the format pronounced GIF with a soft "G", /ˈdʒɪf/, as in "gin". However, another alternative pronunciation uses a hard "G", /ˈɡɪf/, as in "graphics", reflecting the expanded acronym. Both pronunciations are given as correct by the Oxford English Dictionary[2] and the American Heritage Dictionary.[3] According to Steve Wilhite, the creator of the GIF format, the original pronunciation deliberately echoes the American peanut butter brand, Jif, and the employees of CompuServe would often say "Choosy developers choose GIF", spoofing this brand's television commercials.[4] This pronunciation was also identified by CompuServe in their documentation of a graphics display program called CompuShow.[4]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format

I didn't mean to make a mountain out of a small off-hand remark, but I thought it was interesting point. I too say "GIF", with a hard "G" - always have and always will :)

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