Editing MSQL (section)

==History==
In 1993–94 David Hughes developed a network monitoring and management system called Minerva.<ref>{{cite news|title=Minerva : An Event Based Model For Extensible Network Management|citeseerx = 10.1.1.48.4006}}</ref> The design of this system required a database management system to store its configuration and working data. To enable future portability, Hughes elected to use a [[SQL|Structured Query Language]] interface between the application and the database management system, despite the fact that at the time there was no free or inexpensive SQL database management implementation available. Hughes therefore developed a translation program which provided an SQL interface to the free [[Postgres]] DBMS (which did not use SQL<ref>{{cite book|last1=Yarger|first1=Randy Jay|last2=Reese|first2=George|last3=King|first3=Tim|title=MySQL & mSQL|year=1999|publisher=O'Reilly|isbn=1-56592-434-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/mysqlmsql00yarg/page/8 8]|url=https://archive.org/details/mysqlmsql00yarg/page/8}}<br>"Postgres, unfortunately, came with similar resource requirements as its commercial counterparts without the advantage of SQL as a query language. At the time, postgres used a variant of the QUEL language called PostQUEL"</ref>). This product was named miniSQL,{{clarify|source needed on spelling. No capitalisation and spacing, i.e. "Mini SQL"?|date=May 2023}} or mSQL. In time it became clear that Postgres did not perform adequately on the low-specification systems used to run Minerva, so mSQL developed into a lightweight database management system in its own right, implementing a limited subset of the SQL standard, but performing well on minimally specified hardware.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Yarger|first1=Randy Jay|last2=Reese|first2=George|last3=King|first3=Tim|title=MySQL & mSQL|year=1999|publisher=O'Reilly|isbn=1-56592-434-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/mysqlmsql00yarg/page/9 9]|url=https://archive.org/details/mysqlmsql00yarg/page/9}}</ref>

mSQL was the first low-cost SQL-based database management system.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} Combined with the free [[Linux]] operating system, the availability of relatively powerful low-cost PC hardware, and the development of [[World Wide Web]] standards and technologies, mSQL was an important factor in the early development of interactive, dynamic web applications,<ref name="lj1997">{{cite news|url=http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2206|title=Using mSQL in a Web-Based Production Environment|last=Burkett|first=Scott|year=1997|work=Linux Journal|accessdate=29 May 2010}}</ref> particularly in the period 1994–1997, after which it was increasingly supplanted by the more highly featured [[MySQL]]. mSQL had a large and widespread install base by the late 1990s.<ref name="redhat" />