built on SQL fail miserably with respect to Codd's rule 9 "Logical data independence", Dataphor applications can automatically change when the logical layer change. E.g. when a new column is added to the system, no additional development is needed to have that be a new field visible to the users for viewing or editing. Expert opinions on Dataphor Hugh Darwen has referred to D4, as a notable project in his talk entitled The Askew Wall. Chris Date refers to Dataphor as a product that attempts to implement the Third Manifesto. Fabian Pascal calls Dataphor "Truly Relational", and "superior to SQL" History In 1999, point of sale systems developer Softwise Inc, found they were writing much of the same code over and over again, and looked for a tool to automate their database applications. They didn't find an application which did what they want, so they created a division of their company, called it Alphora, and set some of their developers to build such a tool. That tool became Dataphor. It is said to be the first truly relational DBMS since IBM Business System 12. Development of Dataphor began shortly before 2000, with a 1.0 release in 2001. In early 2008, the Alphora name and the Dataphor product were acquired by Database Consulting Group, which was founded by the original architects of Dataphor, who left Softwise in 2007. After the acquisition, Dataphor was re-licensed as open source under the BSD License. Technology Dataphor utilizes the Microsoft .NET Framework and is written entirely in C#. The following is a summary of the various technology components of Dataphor: Dataphor Server The Dataphor Server has several components including: Call-level interface - session management, process scheduler, etc. Data Dictionary Catalog - containing all of the Tables, Views, Operators, Constraints, References, and other schema objects. D4 Scanner, Parser, Emitter, and Compiler. D4 Runtime - including relational, and scalar processing Storage Integration layer - real-time translation to various dialects of SQL Languages While Dataphor supports a SQL flavor they call "RealSQL", D4 is the preferred language for use within Dataphor, D4 supports DDL and DML statements. D4 queries tend to look like Relational Algebra expressions with written out names of operators. For example: Syntax D4 has a Pascal-like syntax. D4 sample code is usually written in UpperCamelCase, which is also widely used in Pascal and Delphi systems. Like most query languages, D4 has a Data Definition Language