Thanks, Helen!

Once again, you're awesome! People should tell you that more
often... :-)

-Gary

--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Helen Borrie <helebor@t...>
wrote:

> At 05:00 AM 13/06/2003 +0000, you wrote:
> >(The
> > > BDE is really obsolete for IB 6...)
> >
> >Yes, someone on the general borland interbase newsgroup gave me the
> >link to a whitepaper explaining that Borland has demoted the BDE in
> >favor of a more direct connection mechanism in dB Express or
> >something similar. The problem was that we also intend to support

MS

> >SQL Server and Oracle, and our developers decided not to support

two

> >code bases for the app... they chose the BDE. It is also compounded
> >by the fact that they started this project over two years ago!
> ..using Delphi 5, I suppose. Delphi 6 - where fair and due

warning was

> given that the BDE was being deprecated for client/server

databases -

> introduced the new "generic" VCL interface which evolved into
> DbExpress. For "generic", of course read "lowest common
> denominator". That's the nature of the "generic" game...
> Delphi 6 and 7 Enterprise both come with DbExpress drivers for SQL

Server

> and Oracle - and for InterBase, of course.
> Third parties advance the cause by developing smarter DbExpress

drivers

> than the supplied ones - as, for example, Martijn Tonies' Firebird
> driver. No doubt you would find 3P drivers for the other players

that are

> more functional than the Borland-supplied ones.
>
> Not much use to you if you are locked into Delphi 5, though.
>
> btw, I'm pretty sure the Intersolv driver (which was never

developed past

> the ill-fated Delphi 5.5) needs the BDE underneath it as well. I

think the

> Easysoft driver was the first "Borland certified" ODBC InterBase

driver to

> connect directly via the API rather than through the BDE layer.
>
> (Feel free to scream at me if I'm wrong about that...I became

innoculated

> against the temptations of generic interfaces the day I began using

IB

> Objects...on the watershed discovery that the primary design

objective of

> generic interfaces is to metamorphosise a silk purse into a sow's

ear)

>
> My antediluvian pretensions apart, ("if generic it must be")

SQLDirect does

> a very light-footed direct-to-all-famous-APIs data access object

system

> that's portable across SQL-vendor borders. I don't have the URL to

hand

> but you could Google it with ease. It knocks the spots off

DbExpress

> (though I haven't played with Martijn's Firebird driver).
>
> h.