Re: Database for gnome

["J. Patrick Narkinsky" <patrick amphigory tez net>]

On Fri, 6 Feb 1998, Miguel de Icaza wrote:

> Isn't sql standard?  
> 
> If it is not, we can just come up with a backend thing.  
> 

Well, yes and no.

While there is a standard for SQL (ANSI), there are a lot of variations in
the way various vendors implement.  Even worse, there is no standard for
communication between a client and a database (i.e. no real standard
network protocol or anything). This is typically done (on UNIX) using a
library which has a set of calls to send queries and retrieve the
responses.  

There is no real standard for these library calls.

ODBC is basically a standardized API for applications wanting to
communicate with a database (and a rationalized version of SQL called
"ODBCSQL"). While there are ODBC drivers for UNIX, near as I can gather
they aren't really standardized on UNIX.  (In windoze, support is provided
by Microsoft.)

Patrick


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J. Patrick Narkinsky | God doesn't like intellectual slackers any
                     | better than he likes any other kind of slacker.
                     |                          - C.S. Lewis
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