--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Helen Borrie <helebor@t...>
wrote:

> Since I'm aware
> you do use Delphi (or have done, in the past), one strong

recommendation is

> to avoid processing these mass operations by looping through a

dataset on

> the client side. Write DML to do this sort of stuff and use an

interface,

> such as IBO, that provides a bare bones statement class (TIB_DSQL).

For a

> large proportion of the work, this obviates the need to pull massive

sets

> over to the client and hold their resources interminably.
>
> ./heLen
>

While I do use Delphi, our shop also uses COBOL. When I posted this
question I was thinking more of the COBOL side of things than the
Delphi side. I fixed the Delphi side by using IBO and its 'automatic'
OAT advancement features. COBOL programs typically either read an
entire table from end to end, updating some percentage of the records
encountered along the way or they start reading a table sequentially
displaying records to the screen and then waiting for someone to press
enter before proceeding to the next record. This kind of stuff causes
all kinds of grief with the OAT.

It is easy to say "don't write apps like that" but I am trying to
migrate exising COBOL apps from indexed files to relational database
so that we can integrate them with the newer Delphi apps. A complete
rewrite of the existing COBOL is not on. Surely there must be some
other way?