Hi,

On behalf of JayBird team I want to announce release of JayBird 1.5
beta-1.

What's new:

* full JDBC 2.0 compatibity (passed JDBC CTS 1.3.1 suite,
1219 tests)
o full callable statement support
o batch updates
o support of ResultSet.TYPE_SCROLL_INSENSITIVE
o X/Open SQL states are reported by SQLException
o escaped syntax support for stored procedures and functions
o fixed JDBC specs deviations from 1.0.1 release

* type 2 JDBC driver support: now you can use gds32.dll/libgds.so,
fbclient.dll/libfbclient.so and fbembed.dll/libfbembed.so
(requires native library, available as separate package),
it allows you to:
o use local connectivity when application runs on localhost
o use embedded version of the engine
o use driver with InterBase 5.x, 6.5, 7.0.

* multi-thread safety: now you can use one connection from
multiple threads

* introduced Firebird-specific interfaces: FirebirdConnection,
FirebirdStatement, FirebirdPreparedStatement and FirebirdBlob:
you can utilize Firebird-specific features.

* completely rewritten JDBC connection pool with prepared
statement caching, more properties to control DataSource and
ConnectionPoolDataSource objects.

* savepoint support for Firebird 1.5 (JDBC 3.0 only, hence for
JDK 1.4.x only)

Also I take an opportunity to thank all of you for the cooperation we
had in 2003 and wish you all happy New Year 2004!

Best regards,
Roman Rokytskyy