FreeTDS Development Group

["Lowden, James K" <LowdenJK AT bernstein.com>]

> From: freetds-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:freetds-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of 
> Thompson, Bill D
> 
> I've been wrestling with the features of dbbind and 
> dbnullbind
...
> I could do several things:
> 
> 1) code our dblibrary funstions so that they behave as 
> specified in the manual pages.
> 2) attempt to reflect the actual (but inconsistent) behaviour 
> of the Sybase implementation
> 3) code to a different, but clearer and arguably more sensible,
> specification.

Hi Bill, 

Can you cite an example where someone following the letter of the 
documentation would build a non-working application when linking to one of 
the vendors' libraries?  

In general, I'm sure you agree that adhering to the documents is best.  
Bug-for-bug compatibility is useful in two cases:

1.  Following the docs doesn't actually work.  
2.  Binary compatibility.  

The first case is truly bad, and I don't know of any examples.  The second is 
a far-off goal; we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, IMO.  

The other kind of not-of-the-docs behavior are things that work but aren't 
documented to work, things like using varlen of -1 that you found.  I think 
it's fine to support them when it's convenient, and deny them when not.  
Anyone who complains can fix his code or change ours.  

Is that any help?  

--jkl

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