FreeTDS Development Group

["James K. Lowden" <jklowden AT speakeasy.org>]

Hello Devin,

Devin wrote:

> I am attempting to port freetds over to a Windows platform

That sounds like an interesting project.

> What are CTLIB and DBLIB?

The Tabular Data Stream is a protocol, a definition of "bytes on the wire", of
messages exchanged with the server.

tdslib is a library that implements the Tabular Data Stream.

dblib, ctlib, and odbc are names of APIs that applications can use to 
communicate
with a server that speaks TDS.  In FreeTDS, there is a library for each of 
these
APIs.  They all let tdslib do the low-level communication work.  That's what 
Brian's
referring to when he says they "all ride atop libtds".


> I have managed to create a TDS dll and import library without even using 
> them

so far, so good

> but I have not been able to get TDS to work.

for what value of "work"?  For example, have you tried porting the tds unit 
tests?

> Perhaps the problem is with TDS and MS Data Engine (which is what
> i'm using to test). Does data engine even support TDS?

Not likely.  MS hardly mentions TDS in any of their documentation.  They'd 
have you
believe the "native protocol" is ODBC or Ol.eDb, which is twice false because 
those
things aren't even protocols, much less native.

Hope that helps.  And I hope you're having fun.

--jkl