> Can someone point me to some documentation explaining concisely the

concerns

> some people have with using the BDE to access a firebird database.
>
> The reason I ask is that I have been experimenting and have been

looking at

> the logs created by BDE as it does its thing. What concerns me is

that when

> searching for information about firebird I
> have found that peoples general attitude to the BDE is very

negative, yet

> when I examine the logs I am finding that the BDE is doing a great

job - the

> SQL generated is excellent. Given that I must support different

databases

> (including Paradox) I wonder what all the fuss is about.

--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "Leslie Milburn"
<lwm317_ebayaccount@...> wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> Can someone point me to some documentation explaining concisely the

concerns

> some people have with using the BDE to access a firebird database.
>
> The reason I ask is that I have been experimenting and have been

looking at

> the logs created by BDE as it does its thing. What concerns me is

that when

> searching for information about firebird I
> have found that peoples general attitude to the BDE is very

negative, yet

> when I examine the logs I am finding that the BDE is doing a great

job - the

> SQL generated is excellent. Given that I must support different

databases

> (including Paradox) I wonder what all the fuss is about.
>
> Thanks
> Leslie.
>
> Ps: Sorry if this appears more than once, yahoo is playing up.

The BDE has many problems and I am sure that anyone with access to
google could discover them in seconds. It was not designed for 'client
server' type databases but more aimed at the desktop database arena
(eg Paradox). These databases work fine, well providing by fine you
assume the machine never crashes and you don't have to go around
looking for lck and net files, I still shudder. On a performance
level, it can't even compete on the same page as the rest. On a
stability level, I am not aware of an any BDE version that does not
have stability problems with any version of Interbase 6+ or Firebird.
You should be aware that the BDE is no longer maintained. It suffers
'lowest common denominator' syndrome, inheriting the worst traits of
each database and unable to provide the advantages of any of them. The
transactions almost want to be in autocommit mode, which of course
goes against the whole idea of ACID (and I wont even get started there).

My only regret from my BDE days is that I persisted so long with it.

I persisted to the point of writing a data abstraction layer that sat
on the server and ran all the queries locally then sent the compressed
results back to the application.

Our customers have grown both in number and size since then. The
maximum database size (back then) that the architecture really allowed
for with acceptable performance was about 2 months worth of data on
the largest site we have. Our current largest customer has about 12
times as many employees and has over 2 years of data, and it is not
even pushing the limits of the dbms or connection components.
(Remember a database of equivalent size would have lasted all of about
5 days between purges on the old version).

Our customer base is probably triple what it was then, yet our support
is less. We have seen only two minor cases of corruption (one I
definately know was hardware related) in over two years. Firebird and
the Firebird client is easier to install than BDE, easier to configure
and takes better care of itself.

I am not sure what you mean by it generating excellent SQL. I
seriously hope you are not using a TTable approach (a bad idea even
under Paradox).

Comparing BDE to [insert name of ANY other connection component] is
really like comparing a kayak to an ocean cruiser. If you expect a
millpond, then choose either. If you live in the real world, I know
which one I would rather.

By the way, is there any reason you want to persist with Paradox
considering the Firebird license allows you to use / distribute /
customise / do pretty much whatever you need to do? If you are going
to the effort of supporting Firebird, then to me it seems pointless to
persist with a database engine that will cause more than its fair
share of support calls.

Adam