At 09:55 AM 2/02/2004 +0530, you wrote:

>Hi !
>
>Hope this is the right forum to ask this question.
>
>We are a small s/w development company, currently working on desktop
>applications using Delphi & Paradox. Planning to scale up the applications
>and is quite impressed with Firebird so far (not yet started using).
>
>Ideally we would like our application to run on desktop as well as to be
>used at enterprise level.
>
>Can we use Firebird Embedded Engine to develop desktop applications?

Yes, that's what it is for.

>If so, what are the differences between Embedded Engine and Server?

Instead of your client application connecting to the server through the
usual client, it connects to its own instance of the server, which is
embedded in the client libary.

>Any document available on this?

You only need the installation docs...see releasenotes + the readme file in
the Win32 kit.

>Is the Embedded Engine something similar to BDE & Paradox?

Nothing like it. You still need your connectivity layer for Delphi (e.g.
IB Objects or the BDE). There is no BDE driver suitable for Firebird 1.5
though.

>Can we have multiple connections with Embedded Engine?

Multiple connections from the same instance of your application - yes. A
user running multiple instances of the application - no.
Out of curiosity, why would you want to make multiple connections to an
embedded database engine?

/hb