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by simicd 779 days ago
Currently there is very little information available online on GQL, the SIGMOID paper 'Graph Pattern Matching in GQL and SQL/PGQ' linked in the article is a great intro to the topic [1]. The authoritative source is the ISO spec [2] but it is paywalled. In short, GQL ISO is inspired by the following query languages and has the aim to standardize graph querying:

- SPARQL: A query language for RDF data, developed for semantic web by W3C. [3]

- PGQL: Property Graph Query Language developed by Oracle [4]

- Cypher: Neo4j's query language designed for its graph database. [5]

- openCypher: An open-source initiative to make the Cypher available beyond Neo4j database. [6]

- GSQL: TigerGraph's graph query language, SQL-like syntax for graph querying. [7]

- SQL/ PGQ: Another subproject of the SQL standard group introducing graph queries inside SELECT statements. Superseded by GQL (chapter SQL/PGQ Property Graph Query in [8])

[1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.06217

[2] https://www.iso.org/standard/76120.html

[3] https://www.w3.org/TR/2013/REC-sparql11-overview-20130321/

[4] https://pgql-lang.org/

[5] https://neo4j.com/docs/cypher-manual/current/introduction/

[6] https://opencypher.org/

[7] https://www.tigergraph.com/gsql/

[8] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_Query_Language
1 comments
helltone 779 days ago
It is quite ridiculous in my opinion that the iso standard is paywalled. When it comes to standards, we should be driving adoption by making it accessible, in particular for open source developers, students learning etc. Piracy of standards may actually be beneficial for their success. I wonder who buys the access at such price and how much money iso makes it any at all.
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rjsw 779 days ago
You can get the machine interpretable bits of it without a paywall [1].

[1] https://standards.iso.org/iso-iec/39075/ed-1/en/

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simicd 779 days ago
Yeah totally agree. I think it's great there is an organization that works on establishing standards but paywalling them definitely adds lots of frictions. In an ideal world the org would be fully financed by its members/governments so the standards can freely proliferate. Guess the only ones paying are big corporations who can then claim to be in accordance with a standard.
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