On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 03:18:56PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote: > Michael Fuhr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > "Allballs" is slang for "all zeros" because zeros look like balls. > > You hear it sometimes in environments that use a 24-hour clock > > (communications, military, etc.). Here's an example: > > > http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf2-3.html > > > I don't know that "allballs" is specified in any standard, so I > > suspect that somebody who used the term added it to PostgreSQL > > (or whatever it was called at the time) for convenience. > > I'm sure it isn't in any SQL standard ;-). Tom Lockhart is doubtless > responsible for it being in our code; I suppose he put it in because it > is in reasonably common use at JPL. > > regards, tom lane
Actually I think all of the weird psuedonyms for 000000 were in postgres very early on. I remember seeing them in illustra and we branched postgres in 1992. So I blame funky grad students. --elein ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org