> Thanks for the answer ... so I presume selecting text is just as
> easy as 'select this, thisblob from thisTable' ?
> When I was reading Helen's book on Firebird so was mentioning a Blob-
> id being returned. My Delphi programs handle these transparantly,
> but I was just wondering whether select-statements via the ODBC
> driver are returning the actual text blob or some id. And if they
> are returing an id, what the next query should be.

there is no need to do this. Just select the field and display it. Try it.
It's a 2 second test for someone with hundreds of lines of asp rountines.

>
> Regarding the asp vs php: it's just not easy to overhaul a complete
> running site from asp to php, especially when, like me, you have
> hundreds and hundreds lines of asp routines and classes which
> perform their task rather well.

quite - the comment was intended for new projects only. I have many in both
camps now.
Alan

>
> Thanks