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From: "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Windows Ada database support.
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 12:03:12 +0100
Organization: cbb software GmbH
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On 28 Nov 2004 11:23:31 +0100, Pascal Obry wrote:

> "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> writes:
> 
>> On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 19:46:58 -0500, David Botton wrote:
>> 
>>> While I am not thrilled with the idea of create Ada standards for 
>>> bindings to complex externals systems,
>> 
>> Yes, that would be too much to swallow. But I meant data bases, narrowly
>> understood. Also a data base is not necessarily an "external" system,
>> Berkeley DB for example. So it is not equivalent.
> 
> I think that if we want a database interface in the Ada standard it should be
> based  on ODBC. ODBC is just that a cross-platform standard to access any
> databases. Maybe it is not the best in term of performance but it is standard,
> simple, comprehensive well known at this point... and it is always possible to
> provide external high level libraries not in the standard.

I am not sure.

For one of my projects I even have implemented thick OO-ish bindings to
ODBC via GNADE, but I am not satisfied with ODBC. Not just because of
performance, which is awful. The very design of ODBC is something. It
abstracts SQL, but you still have to use SQL. So it takes the worst of two
worlds. Do you know, how to query via ODBC, if the data base supports
"PRIMARY KEY" in "CREATE TABLE"? The number of questions like that is
countless. The idea, ask how it spelt and tune the application in
accordance, is just idiotic. Ada's way(tm) is: I want "type X is range
1..100", go, do what should be done.

So in my view ODBC as an implementation (one of), yes of course, but as the
template for the standard, God save us!

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de