DIRECT was a research database management system developed at the University of Wisconsin. It was an early relational system that supported data manipulation and report generation, with a user interface intended for non-programmers.
DIRECT ran on custom database-machine software atop DEC hardware, not on a conventional operating system such as Unix.
DIRECT was a research database management system developed at the University of Wisconsin. It was an early relational system that supported data manipulation and report generation, with a user interface intended for non-programmers.
DIRECT ran on custom database-machine software atop DEC hardware, not on a conventional operating system such as Unix.
History[02]
As part of the development of DIRECT, David DeWitt and his collaborators developed the Wisconsin Benchmark to compare their system against the leading commercial database systems at the time (i.e., Oracle and Ingres). The published results showed that Oracle performed poorly on several workloads, while systems like Ingres and DIRECT often fared better. Oracle's founder and wealthy gadabout, Larry Ellison reacted strongly to these results and attempted to have DeWitt fired from the university. Oracle subsequently introduced license terms prohibiting publication of benchmark results without prior approval. These anti-benchmark provisions became known as "DeWitt Clauses" and were later adopted by many proprietary software vendors. Although the term is associated with DeWitt, it ironically commemorates his advocacy for open and reproducible benchmarking rather than opposition to it.
