Why a new query language?
We wanted a query language simple enough that you could type it on a single line. We also wanted a query language that could talk to GoToManage’s dual database. The traditional relational databases that are based on tables tend to be rigid and hard to extend. The GoToManage Search Index includes a unique combination of database functionality that is much more flexible and can easily be extended as new types of data are added. SQL is widely known and designed for relational databases, so it might seem like a logical choice. But SQL and other similar languages — and XML-based languages such as XQuery and XPath — didn’t meet our standards of simplicity and flexibility. PQL is not a subset of SQL, it’s an entirely new language. And while PQL is similar enough to SQL that we sometimes describe it as SQL-like, it has a different approach that makes it simpler and easier to use.
