> For Heaven's sake - this is surely a pretty obvious
> requirement - so let's have it!!
> I have in excess of 1200 users who will need it.

It is actually a very rare requirement. Generally the
interbase/firebird server is installed separately. That installation
results in the server being run as a Windows service, automatically
starting when the system starts. The Guardian program that comes
with IB/FB takes care of restarting the server service if it should
fail.

Bear in mind that starting/stopping/installing the service from the
client application has significant security implications (on platforms
that support security), so such processing is usually isolated from
the client.

Remember that IB is not really a desktop system like Paradox etc. It
was designed as a client/server RDBMS - as such most of the setup and
installation aspects do assume a client/server configuration. Given
that IB/FB are now available for free I guess that there may be more
people running IB/FB as a desktop DBMS, in which case extensions to
support its use in that regard may need to be considered.

Note that IBO's capabilities are limited by the API made available.
Code such as that posted will work with current versions on local
installations. It is not guaranteed to work on future versions (where
registry locations and program names may change) and will not work on
remote server installations.


Geoff Worboys
Telesis Computing