At 11:52 PM 26/11/2005 -0800, you wrote:

>Greetings! I'm on a WinXP SP-2, with Firebird-1.5.2.4731 installed in its
>Superserver flavor.
>
>I have a couple of questions:
>
>???: Where do I get documentation for the small set of utilities provided
>with the install (gsec, etc.) I've looked for this and found nothing.

All in OpGuide.pdf.

>???: I'm thinking I need to create a user so that I can operate in from my
>standard user acct. rather than my Administrative account, but I don't
>know where to find out how to do this.

On Windows your OS account has nothing to do with it. For newbies, be
SYSDBA and use the (case-sensitive) password 'masterkey'.

>I've downloaded the Interbase 6 manuals from IBPhoenix, but I'm somehow
>not learning anything about users. Must be missing it or something.

You don't need to know about user authentication to get going...

>Is there a quicker way I can get started, other than plowing through the
>indexes of a dozen manuals?

....download the Firebird 1.5 Getting Started Guide from the Firebird
website and begin at page 1.

>isql.exe seems to have no help facility that I can find. Do I really have
>to research every command I try to enter to get the syntax right? Is there
>no quicker way to find out what's wrong?

For very brief help, just type "isql" at the command line, or help; if you
are already in the isql shell.

For more, OpGuide.pdf. For up-to-date, The Firebird Book or the 1.5
release notes.

>I have IBEasy installed, and have done a lot of MS Access db
>construction/programming, so I'm reasonably comfortable with databases
>generally, but I'd just like to get into this one more easily.

Get the doc. Use the release notes (from your doc folder under Firebird)
if you get stuck on stuff that's not in the Borland guides. Use the
list. Browse the new user's guide at the Firebird website. Buy this book
if things start getting serious: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590592794

cheers,
./heLen