John:

I used to do a LOT of work in the BDE (BC++ v.6), and I migrated to
BDS 2006. There is a SIGNIFICANT difference between the BDE and
dbExpress (almost an order of magnitude in processing speed but some
significant changes in structure).

When I started with Firebird, I was using the IB Objects that came
with the BDS, but I found them to be almost as difficult to manage as
dbExpress and they were slower. Part of this is because Firebird
requires transactions, and I was not comfortable with the way the UB
objects managed that (a personal preference).

I created a C++ Object using the C API. If you are looking for
compact code and speed, I'd consider writing the Read/Write/Update for
each table (and/or view).

There are several interfaces to help; I have seen IBPP and think it is
pretty good (http://www.ibpp.org/) as well as open source.

Drop me a note offline if you have questions or issues.
Kurt.

> --- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "John Cibulskis" wrote:
>
> Well, I'm a newbie to Firebird, transfering over from BDE, using BDS
> 2006 under XP Pro.
>
> I've downloaded Firebird 2.0.3 from
> http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=files and unpacked the zip.
>
> All the documentation on Firebird says that the best way to install
> Firebird is to run the installer - and that the installer will ask
> you whether you want to install the Classic or the Super Server.
>
> I may be blind, but I cannot find the installer!
>
> I downloaded the zip and unzipped it. Something is running, but I
> have not been able to create a database. I've followed carefully the
> example in the manual. Moreover, the Examples that the documentation
> says should be there are not and so I don't know if I can connect to
> an existing database. If I will need to uninstall it (in order to
> reinstall it), I'm not sure how I can do that either!
>
> Anyone with any ideas?
> Thanks,
> John
>