At 11:14 PM 30/10/2006, you wrote:

>Being a newbie (have been using Paradox and BDE since Delphi 1) I
>have a few questions that is bugging me tremendously. If my
>questions seem stupid or silly I only ask those who respond to try
>and understand my frustration (being a newbie regarding SQL as well).
>
>I have downloaded FireBird 1.5.3 and installed it with the
>superserver option. When trying to create a database I get a message
>regarding the user not added and that I must contact the
>Administrator. The command(s) used are
>
>CREATE DATABASE "<drive>:\<database_name>.fdb";#
>USER "sysdba" PASSWORD "masterkey";

You tried to make 2 commands out of this. remove the semicolon after
the database name. Also, as a precaution, use single quotes for the
strings (filepath, username and password) - double quotes for strings
is wrong syntax for Firebird. They have a different syntactical use.

>Now, I have installed Interbase 6.5 and uninstalled this when I
>installed FireBird. And as an added problem (using IBEasy) whenever
>I try to execute IBEasy I am prompted with another error, gds32.dll
>is missing.

During your installation you had the option to create the Firebird
client (fbclient.dll) as gds32.dll and place it in the system32
directory (where Borland stuff goes looking for it). If you didn't
take this option you can do it anyway, by running the program
instclient.exe (in the Fb bin directory) from the command line. For
the syntax, look for the readme in the Fb doc directory.

>My problem (question) is two-fold:
>
>1. How do I add a user to FireBird to enable me to create a database?

Use the gsec utility (also in the bin directory).

>2. Is Interbase a requirement for IBEasy?

I doubt it. But, if it uses Borland's IBXpress for its connectivity,
it may well need that specially generated "compatible" gds32.dll.

>And for interest sake (I haven't tried it since I am unable to
>create a database to use with FireBird) does the components in
>Delphi 7 cater for FireBird as they do for Interbase (referring to
>the Interbase components that ship with Delphi)

More or less. Up to 1.5.3, people seem to get on with them (IBX) all right.

>or must one create a new set of components to use with FireBird?

No need. There are plenty of connectivity components for Delphi and
Firebird - IB Objects, FIBPlus, UIB components, to name but a
few. Go to www.ibphoenix.com and find your way to the Contributed
Downloads pages - get through to the section on connectivity for the
links to info, trial packs, etc.

>Sorry, my last question. When using FireBird I am assuming that I do
>not need to distribute the BDE files with an application?

The BDE files have to do with connectivity. You actually can *sort
of* use the BDE v.5.2 and the old InterBase 6 driver with Firebird
1.5. It's not recommended though as nobody ever bothered to fix its bugs.

> If an application is distributed what must be distributed to give the end-
>user access to FireBird, both on a server and a client machine?

The full installation of your chosen server model on the server
machine; a copy of your executable and the client library on the
client machine. You can alternatively distributed the embedded
server + your application for a stand-alone deployment.

May I respectfully suggest that, instead of expressing your
embarrassment at asking these ultra-newbie questions, you use the
Quick Start Guide and the release notes that are in the Fb doc
directory? Also, there is a whole "newbie" area (Novices' Guide) at
the Firebird website with links to docs, how-tos and whatevers.

./heLen