Editing Multics Relational Data Store (section)

{{Short description|Relational database for the Multics operating system}}
{{refimprove|date=January 2014}}

The '''Multics Relational Data Store''', or '''MRDS''' for short, was the first commercial [[relational database management system]]. It was written in [[PL/1]] by [[Honeywell]] for the [[Multics]] [[operating system]] and first sold in June 1976.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Leavitt |first1=Don |title=MDBM' Backs Network, Relational Approaches |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OohpOVF5L-IC&pg=PA11 |work=Computerworld |publisher=IDG Enterprise |date=6 September 1976 |language=en}}</ref> Unlike the [[SQL]] systems that emerged in the late 1970s and early 80s, MRDS used a command language only for basic data manipulation, equivalent to the <code>SELECT</code> or <code>UPDATE</code> statements in SQL. Other operations, like creating a new database, or general file management, required the use of a separate command program.