> How would it be to have an extension to the DDL syntax to avoid an exception
> if a DROP statement is executed and the object to be dropped is already
> gone?

Do you mean to implement it in IB engine ?
I think such functionality belongs elsewhere.

If you implement it in ib-sql-script-interpreter (i.e. client program like isql),
you can have much more flexible solution, e.g. possibility to
- suppress errors completely and continue in script
- only report errors but continue
- stop script in case of error
- test for errors in previous command and transfer script execution elsewhere
etc.

i.e. implement interpreting few extra commands (on client), like
SET ON_ERROR {CONTINUE | REPORT | [COMMIT | ROLLBACK] EXIT };
IF FAILED GOTO Jim's_Label;

Such solution works for both DDL and DML errors.

Ivan
prenosil@...
http://www.volny.cz/iprenosil/interbase