[annywhey]

I actually had a spell the other day where I looked at alternatives to SQL, which mostly produced Tutorial D variants. And there are some nifty ones, there are query languages that will compile to specific SQL dialects so that you can keep using a familiar database engine. They just aren't used much.

Somehow, we've come to accept a Babel of general purpose programming languages(albeit mostly centered around Algol variants) but the same really hasn't happened with databases. Either it is a form of SQL or it is pooh-poohed as weird and bad.

And I don't think that that's because SQL got everything right and we should worship vintage language design - I think it's just a case of specialized demand and barriers to entry making the database market move slower. A lot of shops fail even at using basic features of SQL, so maybe it's asking too much to get beyond a passing familiarity with relational concepts and one syntax to interact with them.