> > will be nice if Firebird allows C# integration in the future ( as
> > well as Java :) )
>
> It would be, but it has to be plugable. Only one platform FB runs on
> supports .Net, and not everyone wants to install a JVM.

That's the contract behind the external procedures - they must be
pluggable. You can write them using any language but all procedure
calls go through a dispatcher (in paper it is called Module). How the
code of the procedure is executed is not engine's problem. In case of
Java it will be JNI call. .Net probably has similar concept.

Concept of external procedures tries to generalize approaches used in
two existing projects - PL/SQL interpreter by Paul Ruizendaal and Java
SP/UDF proxy by Eugeney Putilin. Both do not really belong to engine
core. PL/SQL interpreter has far smaller footprint than Java SPs and
could in theory be integrated with the engine, but we want to be
generic here. So .Net procedures are something that we kept in mind
when designing the proposal.

Roman