Thanks for the info, I followed that up & found out some
things, but still haven't got the desired xml/csv output.
It seems xml export is not a current feature, a medium priority
for the next major release.

I don't need typed data, or a DTD. Plain xml like this would be
just fine:

<table>
<row><a>1</a><b>=</b><d></d><e></e><f></f><g></g></row>
<row><a>2</a><b>+</b><d></d><e></e><f></f><g></g></row>
<row><a>3</a><b>-</b><d></d><e></e><f></f><g></g></row>
<row><a>4</a><b>*</b><d></d><e></e><f></f><g></g></row>
</table>


The export should work in a general way for *.fdb
- so I think stored procedures are out (also I am a complete FB
novice and I think going thru the loops and hoops to learn how to do
that would send me completely insane).

It's all geek to me, and now you throw in the latin. What gives?

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/infolab/startfarm.cgi?query=quo%20vadis
Main Entry: quo va·dis?
Pronunciation: kwO-'wä-dis, -'vä-d&s
Usage: foreign term
Etymology: Latin
: whither are you going?

Whither I know means where, but I will let
http://open-dictionary.com/Whither, answer that one...
"Conjunction 1. To where. (I do not know whither I am going.)"

Downloaded & installed http://www.ibobjects.com/IB_SQL_EXE.zip
(Unimpressed. yet to find out if or how it works as a console App.)

I didn't know about ibphoenix.com, so I searched
google "site:www.ibphoenix.com xml" -- 23 hits

From 13/11/2004 --
http://www.ibphoenix.com/downloads/OpenFeaturesDetailed.pdf
1439 Allow for dataset to be returned in HTML/XML format using data-
output templates.
5 - Medium (next major release)

Two commercial tools showed up. I decline to pay
more money for what already is proving to be very frustrating
(Yes, I did expected better from this Firebird thing).

Quick Export for InterBase and Delphi
Suite of Delphi components for exporting from your IB/Firebird
database to 12 most popular formats: MS Excel, MS Word (RTF), HTML,
XML, TXT, DBF, CSV, SYLK, DIF, LaTeX, SQL and Windows Clipboard
without ODBC or the BDE.
Available in two versions, for FIBPlus or IB Objects TDataset-
compatible data access objects.
By Vadim Vinokur Commercial

IBQueryEditor V1.0
IBQueryEditor is a graphical tool designed to allow you to quickly
write, save, load and execute SQL scripts against any InterBase or
Firebird database. It provides the following features.
Edit and author SQL scripts and queries.
Multi-threaded to allow multiple queries to be run simultaneously.
Connection manager to manage servers and databases.
Multiple output formats for query results including: CSV, Tab
Delimited, and XML.
Supports InterBase 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.x
Support for Firebird 1.x
By SoftMosis Inc. Commercial

Found an article at:
http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?
a=ibphoenix&s=1099850314:240221&page=ibp_news_art8
" What's happening with Firebird and InterBase?
As featured in the UK Borland Users Group Magazine (Mar/Apr 2002)
By Paul Reeves

XML Generation
I'm yet to be seduced by XML so I don't know whether this is a 'must
have' or a yawn. IB 6.5 ships with a dll that encapsulates some API
calls and returns data wrapped in XML tags. There's no rocket science
here, and I dare say if it was really important for a project a
similar bit of functionality could be knocked up in a day."
Paul Reeves

This Paul Reeves geni-ass seems to think xml is a simple thing.
I don't care if the question is simple or not, I just want a simple
answer... and the "Relational Database for the New Millennium" has
nada.