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Press Release

INGRES EXECUTIVE RETHINKS GENDER SPECIFIC CODING STYLES

Emma McGrattan Takes on Controversial Subject at Southern California Linux Expo

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., February 10, 2009 - If men are from Mars, and women from Venus, then it stands to reason that they would code differently as well, right? That is the controversial question Emma McGrattan, senior vice president of engineering for Ingres Corporation, a leading provider of open source database management software and support services, will revisit at the Southern California Linux Expo (Scale 7X) scheduled for Feb. 20 – 22 at the Los Angeles Airport Westin hotel.

McGrattan made waves in the industry in 2008 when she asserted in both a Financial Times and Wall Street Journal article that women wrote well commented and straightforward code, whereas men oftentimes attempted to show how clever they were by writing more complex code. The battle of the sexes ensued and the fallout was considerable on a number of high profile blogs, including Slashdot. McGrattan has spent the last twelve months reconsidering the question and will now provide new insights in a session scheduled for Friday, Feb. 20, from 10:00 a.m. - 10:55 a.m. (PT) during the Women in Open Source (WIOS) specialty track at the conference.

“I was slashdotted to within an inch of my life, so you’d think I’d want to put the subject at least six feet under,” said McGrattan. “But, I’ve had time to think about it, research the topic, and assess all the comments that resulted from those two articles and I’d like to share that insight with the attendees at this year’s conference.”

McGrattan has worked at Ingres since 1992, where she began as a porting engineer and rose through the ranks to senior vice president of engineering. Never at a loss for words, McGrattan discusses open source, men, women, and coding in her blog, “The View from 25B” at http://blogs.ingres.com/emmamcgrattan.

Scale 7X is the premier open source community conference in the southwestern United States. To register, please go to http://scale7x.socallinuxexpo.org/.

About Ingres Corporation
Ingres Corporation is a leading provider of open source database software and support services. Ingres powers customer success by reducing costs through highly innovative products that are hallmarks of an open source deployment and uniquely designed for business critical applications. Ingres supports its customers with a vibrant community and world class support, globally. Based in Redwood City, California, Ingres has major development, sales, and support centers throughout the world, and more than 10,000 customers in the United States and internationally. For more information, visit www.ingres.com.

Ingres is a registered trademark of Ingres Corporation. All other trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.