Here's the whole gory story. InterBase(r) had shipped
an ODBC driver they got from Merant (previously Intersolv,
though it was the Visigenics driver). It cost $100K per
year, was not portable, and would have cost even more to
upgrade to the new V6 features.

We discussed having EasySoft build an ODBC that they would
offer open source. Their schedule didn't quite match ours.
For somewhat less, my husband, Jim Starkey, offered to build
one, from scratch, to our requirements. Graft and nepotism
aside, Jim's one hell of a coder and even better at design.
His design also gave us a C++ interface and, with a little
additional work, a JDBC.

By mid June, he had the driver in beta test and things were
going reasonably well. When, at the end of July, Inprise
announced that negotiations had ended, we (formerly ISC)
had no way to pay Jim. Remember, he's a consultant and not
part of the IBPhoenix conspiracy, except by marriage. He's
got his own business.

He was pretty annoyed at having taken a month and a half
out of his project for nothing. He was substantially more
annoyed at the way Inprise handled the whole situation.
The thought that Inprise could leave the former ISC stranded
and broke after over six months of negotiations and at the
same time pick up his ODBC driver for free was totally
unacceptable.

All three interfaces of his driver would be of great value
to the InterBase(r) community and I hope that they will
be available in some form soon. What's needed is a way
for IBPhoenix to live up to the contract we made with him
in May, pay him his $25K, and be in a position to support
and maintain the driver.

And that's where it sits.

Regards,

Ann