At 02:29 PM 8/01/2004 +0000, you wrote:

>I am new to Firebird and am trying to determine if it can meet my
>needs.
>
>Please forgive me if this is a stupid question; I've been looking
>through the documentation and can not find anything about this.

Do you have the IB 6 API Guide?

>I want to write a C application that can communicate with the embedded
>version of the Firebird server, but I would like to avoid having to
>use the special pre-processor that seems to be required in the sample
>files provided.

Source of confusion here. It is possible to write "Embedded applications"
using a special subset of SQL named Embedded SQL (ESQL). These commands
can be included in your host code as special blocks that can be
pre-processed using the gpre pre-compiler. The precompiler creates C
source code that will compile into code that directly accesses the
functions that underlie the API. Your client application then connects
directly with the engine, without using the client library.

The "Embedded server" (Windows only, new in 1.5) is a different
concept. It rolls the client library and a single instance of the server
into one DLL. You write applications exactly as you would for a normal
remote client, using API calls - either at a "raw" level in your
application code or through an interface layer like ODBC, IBPP, .NET (to
come) or whatever. There is a welter of C++ component interfaces around as
well.

>Is there a way to make database calls directly from
>C or C++? If so, is there some setup I need to do (like establishing
>an ODBC data source or something)?
>
>I am hoping for a situation similar to SQLITE, where you just make
>SQL calls against a database file without a database server that
>requires a separate installation.

This is exactly what the "Embedded Server" packaging is for. I don't know
anything about SQLite, but if it has a Firebird or InterBase driver for
Windows or supports an ODBC interface, then you can add it to the list.

>Is there a place I can find an example of this?

API Guide for generic, raw API calling interface; Embedded SQL Guide for
"embedded application" technology. Individual forums for structured and
component interfaces like IBP, ODBC, IBObjects, FIBPlus, DBXpress.

/heLen

>Thank you.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/firebird-support/
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> firebird-support-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/