> unfortunately none of them fulfills all these requirements:
>
> - cross platform portability
> - low footprint
> - open source/free software license
>
> show me one and nobody will have to reinvent the wheel. :-)

IBAccess is near (http://www.ibaccess.org)
The cross platform is limited to Linux and Windows.
The low footprint is true in Windows but in Linux requires a bit more
footprint.