At 02:54 PM 18/02/2004 +1100, you wrote:

>This *DOES NOT* help. I've read and understand the library installation
>notes.
>
>It always amazes me that some of you experts try to help without bothering
>to understand the problem :)

It amazes me even more that some people get so hooked up at cross-purposes
that they miss the point of what experts (as well as ordinary people, like
me) are trying to tell them...whatever, this is my final response to this
thread. I'll comment on your etiology and then shut up. Believe me when I
say I REALLY have more pressing things to do with my time.

>The reason that this does not work is that the ADO->ODBC link always
>defaults to using the Interbase gds32.dll in the Windows system directory

If you actually have a RC that has the new "compatibility capability", then
if you *read* the howto in /doc *for that RC*, you'll see instructions on
how to run instclient.exe to have it build an IB-compatible gds32.dll AND
install it in the Windows system directory. This specially-built library
broadcasts the hard-coded *InterBase* version string that some older apps
expect (and crusty old COM falls into that category).

This ability was not available until RC8. There were some problems with it
in RC8 that are supposed to be fixed in RC9.

The situation wasn't helped by the kit-builder actually including an
ancient version of the release notes, that referred to the previous
compatibility solution (the gds32.dll "stub" + fbclient.dll, both in the
system directory, now GONE). You can get the most recent *published*
release notes (v.1.07) from the ibphoenix site.

So, if you've really done all that and the gds32.dll built by
instclient.exe doesn't work as it's expected to, then you should report it
as a bug.

fwiw:
The doc would also have told you that instclient.exe will quietly retire if
it finds you already have (both) a file named gds32.dll in the system
directory AND an installed InterBase or Firebird 1.0.x. In the RC8 version
at least, I had no IB or Fb 1.0 installed and no gds32.dll already in
system32, but instclient.exe STILL didn't install the special gds32.dll in
system32. I had to move it there myself. And tested it with IBX and found
it worked.

It's also a given that, if you've already got (or had) an IB or Fb client
running on the machine and gds32.dll is currently loaded, you won't be able
to overwrite it.

>and *not* the Firebird gds32.dll in the application directory.

Why do you need to rename fbclient.dll in the application directory to
gds32.dll? Didn't you say you had an IBO app there? It's drop-dead easy
to make an IBO app use fbclient.dll.

>This is
>possibly due to the ADO->ODBC link going through an out-of-process COM
>server.

The whole *point* of instclient.exe IS to give you the option to provide
backward compatibility with these older IB-oriented utilities.

/heLen