Following on from a current discussion in the group about performance,
I would be grateful if someone could explain what this is all about.

Helen said:

>>

There's said to be a bit of a gain with precompiled queries.
Actually, all I've ever heard of embedded's supposed speed advantages
is hearsay. I've never done it myself, or seen an embedded production
application. (The command-line tools are embedded apps.)
<<

I really don't understand what is meant by compiled or embedded SQL
(even though there is a whole book in the Interbase documentation set
devoted to this). I can understand the difference between a compiled
or interpreted language, but I can't see how the performance of any
SQL query could be quicker than that issued through e.g. Firebird's
ISQL application. After all, surely this is as close as one can get
vis a vis interrogating the database?

Am I to take it that compiled/embedded SQL is considered the fastest
because there are no intervening layers between the compiled
application and the database e.g. no driver layer? And that any
program that makes use of a database driver is not embedded access?

Bernard