> I am new to Firebird, read most of the manuals. In the InterBase 6 API
> Guide on page 81 it states: "InterBase requires that all transaction handles
> be declared when an application is compiled."

That's nonsense for API applications perhaps someone confused API and
embedded SQL there. For an API-Application there is nothing "magic"
done at compile time, transaction handles are created at runtime by
calling the API.

API might also be used in an interpreted language - there would be no
compile-time at all.

Elmar