From ICE to vPQL

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From ICE to vPQL

• A look back at Eighteen years of
• SiR
• andSiR conferences(1983 2001)

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Changes in the appearance of SiR

• The user interface has changed beyond all
  recognition
• 1983 - character based
• 2001 - GUI
• The style and content of the conference has
  changed as well
• 1983 Handwritten slides and JCL/PQL listings
• 2001 - Powerpoint and WWW

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1983 Goldsmiths College London

• Two days
• First day for ICL user / convertor meeting
• Second day for the rest of the users
• No published proceedings
• No real memory of the event except
• Hard to get to
• Hard seats
• ICL convertor bashing extended to day 2

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1984 Royal Hotel London

• European two day event
• Key note speech in which SiR was almost dismissed
  out of hand and relational praised
• One paper had 16 pages of schema listings
• Another talked of HOPP Host Pre-Processor which
  generated SiR/HOST
• Almost all papers were either typewritten or
  fixed pitch fonts nothing fancy !

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1984 Royal Hotel London

• SiR enhancements
• Concurrent SiR/FORMS updating
• Double key entry in SiR/FORMS
• SQL SAVE TABLE in SiR/DBMS
• New SiR products
• SiR/GRAPH
• PC versions of SiR/DBMS

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1984 Royal Hotel London

• Highlights
• Hand written slides
• Hard to see screen due to layout of room
• Appalling time keeping by session chairmen
• Names and Papers to note
• Kathy Brooks of Pinpoint mentioned in one paper
• Bernie Enlander on the Relational model SiR
• John Lemon on Cows in Cairo

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1985 Hotel Russell London

• Two day UK only event 77 attendees
• Keynotes speech indicated the way ahead was
  Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems
• Relied heavily on PROLOG
• SQL is not enough by Barry Robinson outlined
  pitfalls in SQL
• Highly readable
• Still relevant today

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1985 Hotel Russell London

• Papers were both technical and user applications
• Missing Values in SiR by Catherine Ellis
• Menu driven systems in SiR by K. Brooks and
  B. Enlander
• The UK Family expenditure Survey by M. Janes
• Pancreatic Cancer in North East Scotland by ..

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1985 Hotel Russell London

• SiR Inc announcements
• Read / Write external files
• Access SQL tabfiles from PQL
• Indexes on TABFILES
• MODIFY SCHEMA command
• Improved journalling including UPLOAD / DOWNLOAD
• SQL updating
• FORMS runs on IBM 327x terminals

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1985 Hotel Russell London

• SiR Inc announcements
• Full screen data base definition SCHEMA
• eSQL - embedded SQL for FORTRAN
• SIR/PC
• 512K RAM
• 10 Mbytes disc
• Maths co-processor
• SIR/GRAPH create data set from DBMS or SQL
  then edit

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1985 Hotel Russell London

• SiR Inc announcements for version 3
• File system spanning devices
• Full concurrency over all modules
• Transaction COMMIT processing
• Automatic roll-back recovery
• Improved integration of modules
• Improved and integrated security across all
  modules

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1985 Hotel Russell London

• Highlights
• Barry Robinson's paper on SQL
• The upbeat sales pitch for version 3
• The lack of anything outwith the conference
• And was this the place where the Blue-tacked
  posters demolished the plasterwork ?

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1986 Old Swan Hotel - Harrogate

• Fourth conference and first outside London
• Hotel was where Agatha Christie disappeared
• Much better atmosphere
• People talked instead of going home
• Special Interest Groups SIGs
• ICL
• SQL
• Nothing on paper about SiRs plans for next
  version

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1986 Old Swan Hotel - Harrogate

• Papers and proceedings
• had less code
• More diagrams
• Overheads were getting better
• The use of SiR/DBMS as a teaching tool
  Elizabeth Frondigoun
• Generating Personalised Mail from a SiR data
  base Linda Croxford

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1986 Old Swan Hotel - Harrogate

• User enhancement poll
• Checkpoint on retrievals
• SPSSx SAVE FILE
• Better integration of modules
• Saving summary file for re-processing
• Better performance
• FORMS enhancements
• Full screen editor support
• Transaction processing COMMIT / ROLLBACK

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1987 Pomme DOr - Jersey

• Longest conference ever
• Tuesday arrival Friday departure
• SIGs
• ICL (still ) and now SIR/PC
• SQL or Large data bases
• Still a bit of Oracle bashing
• ISI USIR were promising wonderful things

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1987 Pomme DOr - Jersey

• USIR report
• SIR/GRAPH PC based using summary file
• SIR/LAN
• SIR/ENGINE 3 x 80386 processors
• SIR/FORMS to be replaced with ICE system
• Internal restructure of SiR files
• Record instead of case based
• Would allow partial backups and restores
• How much of this have we seen ?

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1987 Pomme DOr - Jersey

• Papers
• A comparison of SiR and Oracle - Barry Robinson
• The relevance of Relation Theory to Todays SiR
  user Trevor Simpson
• SiR Medians Steve Flack
• SiR 5 years on and a Little bit wiser Fred
  Johnston
• Storing historical data Dave Doulton

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1987 Pomme DOr - Jersey

• Highlights
• the FOOD !!!
• Gestapo headquarters
• the FOOD !!! !!!
• Travel arrangements
• the FOOD !!! !!! !!!
• Island tour
• the FOOD !!! !!! !!! !!!!

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1988 Viking Hotel - York

• Proceedings getting thinner
• Papers from one-day Edinburgh meeting
• Less waffle / listings in papers
• Harder to get presenters to produce paper
  versions
• Time
• Effort
• More ( and better overheads )
• Talk on York and its history now becoming a
  feature

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1988 Viking Hotel - York

• Papers included
• Retrieval Procedures Generation via Forms Menus
  Carmen Lopez
• SiR data base in haste, with no previous
  experience Phillip Mullock
• Customised Data Dictionary Reports using SiR/SQL
  - Bernie Enlander
• Confessions of a none-to-experience SiR user
  Dave Stone

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1988 Viking Hotel - York

• SIGs
• Statistics or SiR/PC
• SQL / ICL
• SiR/EASY
• Highlights
• My opening remarks
• Still causing discussions on last day
• The view from the windows
• The Caribbean dinner

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1989 Great Danes Maidstone

• Yet more new owners of SiR
• Mo and Tony Reardon
• Papers showed moves
• From Batch to Interactive mode
• Word processing instead of typewriters
• Towards user papers
• Fewer technical
• Just copies of overhead slides

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1989 Great Danes Maidstone

• SiGs were now for all
• Technical
• PQL
• Data Base design
• Question and Answer session
• Detailed explanation of 2.3 features

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1989 Great Danes Maidstone

• Highlights
• Access to the hotel
• No taxis
• Walk over the M2 (?) motorway construction site
• Talk on Kent Past and Present
• Tour of Leeds Castle
• Conference dinner in a mediaeval banqueting hall

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1990 - Stafford

• Very thin proceedings combined with 1991
• Papers included
• SiR towards the year 2000 Wally Gazdzik
• House Doctor Allocation to Posts Dave Doulton
• Looking at an Alternative to SiR Katherine
  Ellis
• Panel session Hints Tips
• Optional training session on first day

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1990 - Stafford

• Highlights

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1991 - Portsmouth

• First afternoon optional training session on
  3.0
• Talk on Portsmouth back again
• Themed sessions
• SiR on PCs
• SiR under UNIX
• SiR and Tabfiles
• Version 3 and the future

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1991 - Portsmouth

• Highlights

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1992 Viking Hotel - York

• Afternoon training
• PQL subroutines
• SiR debugger
• Railways and York talk
• No SIGs
• Panel discussion
• News of 3.2

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1992 Viking Hotel - York

• Hints and Tips sessions
• Concurrency
• Monitoring retrievals
• Design
• Papers
• Yes SiR, No SiR - should CES keep SiR
• The Case for Caselessness, when less means more
  the move away from hierarchical ?

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1992 Viking Hotel - York

• More papers in proceedings
• Most were word processed
• Many included good overheads
• No conference summary in proceedings
• Published in Reporter instead

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1993 London

• Data Base designs training session Tony Reardon
  Heather Goldsmith
• Experimented with a number of 15 minute papers to
  encourage some new blood
• Lots of Tips Tricks and training type papers
• Question Answer session
• Panel discussion

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1993 London

• Memories
• No indication as to where in London
• Could have been North west ?
• Late starts to accommodate day delegates
• Proceedings were nearly all word processed but
  still some PQL and schema listings appeared

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1994 Periquito Hotel London

• International conference
• Speakers from 3 continents
• Delegates from 6 countries
• Papers covered
• Applications design
• Esoterics of SiR/Host
• A screen painter in PQL
• Statistics in SiR
• Is SiR the best ?

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1994 Periquito Hotel London

• Highlights
• Rabbit warren of a hotel
• The partial loss of interaction due to day
  delegates
• Last set of published proceeding

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1995 1998

• 1995 Edinburgh June (one day) Kenilworth
  November
• 1996 Bremen March London June (one
  day) Edinburgh November (one day)
• 1997 Sydney January London June (one
  day) Edinburgh November (one day)
• 1998 Florida April London June (one day)

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1999 Grassmarket - Edinburgh

• First time electronic presentations outweighed
  paper
• Highlights
• First real sight of SiR 2000
• The ghost tour of Edinburgh
• The view from the hotel windows

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2000 Old Mill - Colchester

• Speakers had to provide electronic version of
  paper before conference
• Not for publication but to be loaded on PC
• Highlights
• Really a one day conference
• Preceded by two days of training
• Is this the way of the future to encourage
  attendance

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What changes have we seen

• No published proceedings
• Less JCL / PQL
• PowerPoint presentations
• More emphasis on web
• Fewer attendees
• Much more training
• Now look at the changes in SiR
• NOT a Blue Peter approach live demos

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