"Jim Starkey" <jas@...> wrote:

>
> Yes, it does require that a client have the character set handling code
> for this chosen character set on his machine, which is the case for
> virtually every piece of internation software.

Excluding our previous versions?

> I don't particularly see
> this as burdensome, particularly when the server and client kits are one
> and the same. What is your concern?

A _huge_ amount of our users don't want any client installation. They put
fbclient.dll into their application's /bin directory and everything works.
No need for any setup, no need to worry about DLL hell, no external
dependencies. This is what people love in Firebird. My strong opinion is
that everything else (beside the library code itself) on the client side
should be (1) located using the path rules (not registry) hence making any
explicit installation not necessary and (2) optional (e.g. system MBCS
routines are used by default, like my namesake Sibiryakov suggests).


Dmitry