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  • From: Michael Peppler <mpeppler AT peppler.org>
  • To: "TDS Development Group" <freetds AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: db-lib & ct-lib
  • Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 08:42:07 -0800


Lowden, James K writes:
> I'll look after it, Brian.
>
> My 2 cents:
>
> If someone else wrote the software you're compiling, someone else made the
> choice.
>
> If you're not going to use dbm or something else that introduced namespace
> issues, use dblib. It's the Volkwagen Beetle of interfaces: simple,
> durable, efficient.
>
> In 15 years in and around databases, I've never wished dblib did something
> it doesn't.

As of ASE 12.5 dblib can't handle varchars that are wider than 255
bytes, and it doesn't handle numeric/decimal values natively in any
version of ASE. Those two limits can be enough to make dblib
inappropriate for new code.

Michael

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Brian Bruns [mailto:camber AT ais.org]
> > Sent: November 28, 2001 10:47 AM
> > To: TDS Development Group
> > Subject: [freetds] Re: db-lib & ct-lib
> >
> >
> > > hi all,
> > > i'm still confused, what's the different between freetds
> > db-lib and ct-lib
> > > ?
> > >
> > > regards,
> > > karina
> >
> > jkl, this one should go in the faq...
> >
> > DBLib was the original API provided by Sybase for SQL Server. By
> > extension it was also supported by Microsoft during the
> > period immediately
> > following their technology sharing arrangement (I say was, because
> > although MS still ships dblib it is deprecated and doesn't support TDS
> > versions beyond 4.2).
> >
> > Sybase subsequently developed ct-lib as a replacement API.
> >
> > Advantages of dblib: the interface is fairly simple, code
> > written with
> > dblib is small and compact.
> > Disadvantages: It doesn't support advanced features such as
> > placeholders,
> > array binding, and so on. It also suffers from some horrible
> > name space
> > conflicts when use with other libraries (specifically the
> > dbopen() call
> > when linked with any form of dbm, or the typedef of BYTE when
> > linked with
> > several other libraries).
> >
> > Advantages of ctlib: ctlib exposes all current capabilities
> > of Adaptive
> > Server (the new name for SQL Server), and has a robust and
> > well thought
> > out API.
> > Disadvantages: Because of this it can be a bit unwieldy to use.
> >
> >
> > ---
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> >
>
> ---
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--
Michael Peppler - Data Migrations Inc. - http://www.mbay.net/~mpeppler
mpeppler AT peppler.org - mpeppler AT mbay.net
International Sybase User Group - http://www.isug.com




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