[Developers] API for queries

[Patrick Tufts]

Larry Maccherone wrote:
> I can sort of reverse engineer the freebase URL and query scheme by
> looking at the output of the query builder (URL encoded JSON query
> string).  It looks like your scheme may be a better fit.  Can I get
> access to the freebase docs that fully describes the URL mechanisms?
> Also, I'd like to hear your opinion on the Astoria URL scheme.  Do you
> think square bracket notation will be a problem down the road? 
> 
> As an aside, I'm also curios about why implemented your own database.
> I'm planning on using SQL.

Thanks for your positive feedback on MJT. I'll let someone more
knowledgeable take the detailed URL questions, but in general, we're
focused on making the URLs Freebase as clean and meaningful as possible,
and it's something we continue to think about.

Why did we implement our own database language and not use SQL? We use
MQL to generate the views you see on the Freebase website, and we want
you to have full access to the underlying structures in Freebase. MQL is
 designed from the start to match these structures, while SQL assumes a
tables and rows view of data.

--Pat