FreeTDS Development Group

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

On Thu, 06 Feb 2003 14:36:02 -0500, Jon Pounder <JonP AT inline.net> wrote:
> 
> oledb was only the MS flavour of the week for a short time and got
> replaced with ADO.
> Both just adding extra layers of useless overhead onto something that
> was not broken to start with.

Well, we're a little OT here, but fwiw I don't think that characterization
is accurate.  Not that I'm a fan of any of these technologies.  

First, no, ADO didn't "replace" OleDB in any sense.  ADO uses OleDB
servers.  I know: I wrote an OleDB provider that was used via ADO by VB
applications.  

Second, I'm not sure what "extra" layer OleDB added.  It's an abstraction
of a data-providing resource.  It conceals the resource's (possibly
non-tabular) data store, and describes a protocol for accessing it.  From
the point of view of SQL Server, it's an interface to a backend.  From the
point of view of a client application, it's an alternative  client
library.  

Hmm.  Maybe I should write something up for the www site, under
"Entertainment" or something, called "ODBC Considered Harmful".  It would
save us both time, eh?  :-)

--jkl

> At 02:31 PM 2/6/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >On Thu, 6 Feb 2003 12:37:31 -0500, "Craft, Steve"
> ><SCraft AT LegionInsurance.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Regarding the main thread  RE: freetds in win32
> > >
> > > Why use ODBC and not OLEDB on Win32?
> >
> >Just a small matter of programming.  The guts of FreeTDS compile on
> >Win32 now, meaning it can be adapted to other Win32 uses,  As Frank
> >said, ODBC is used on unixy systems, despite its flaws, because nothing
> >better saw wide adoption.  Making FreeTDS compile and run on Win32
> >systems involved making some allowances and adding some files to
> >support the environment, but no (or almost no) new logic.
> >
> >I don't know where OleDB stands these days on the Great Strategy Radar,
> >with .Net morphing from one Tuesday to the next.  To add OleDB glue
> >around FreeTDS would be an interesting project for someone who likes
> >that sort of thing, though.  In theory, it could provide Sybase servers
> >as compatible back-ends to Microsoft servers, meaning they could be
> >seen as "linked servers" and whatnot.
> >
> >--jkl
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> 
> 
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