FreeTDS Development Group

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

On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:04:58 -0400
Ken Collins <ken AT metaskills.net> wrote:

> 
> https://github.com/rails-sqlserver/tiny_tds/blob/master/ext/tiny_tds/tiny_tds_ext.h#L4-5
> 
> From my README on the project.
> 
> I want to configure FreeTDS using --enable-msdblib and/or
> --enable-sybase-compat so it works for my database. ...
> you do not NEED
> to use any of these, nor will they hurt anything since we control
> what C structure names we use and this has no affect on what database
> you use!

How do you deal with the fact that Microsoft defines dbdatecrack() to
return months 1-12 and Sybase uses 0-11?  

--enable-msdblib emulates Microsoft's definition of DB-Library.  It
changes (from memory):

1.  names of members of the datetime structure
2.  range of months for dbdatecrack()
3.  timeout/exit behavior in the error handler

Use of --enable-msdblib is best determined by the programmer's
expectation of how db-lib works.  If there is existing code, the smart
programmer will adapt his expectation to that of the code.  ;-)

For those following along at home, please note that --enable-msdblib
affects the API *only*.  It doesn't change the protocol.  FreeTDS can
connect to any TDS server with or without that option configured.  

--jkl