Re: Anybody got good FAQ material?

In article <wuq6kq4b9$yx057yn@kcbbs.gen.nz> you write: >- What to I need to use MS-Access/Visual Basic with my Informix database? Since the Microsoft products do not currently support Informix directly, you need to reach it using ODBC. There are a variety of vendors that offer Informix ODBC drivers, but Q+E (formally Pioneer Software) is probably the best known and most common. >- What is ODBC? (aka "What's Q+E's email address again?) ODBC stands for "Open Database Connectivity", which is a standard that was developed by Page Ahead and Microsoft to make a "universal" driver for client applications to access different database servers and file formats. Because it is an "open" standard, the formats are published widely and designed to be vender-neutral, to not provoke any political problems for developers. On the PC platform, ODBC is currently available for the Windows and OS/2 environments. Due to the structure of memory on the PC there are no plans to ever have DOS support for ODBC. There is a Macintosh version of ODBC that is also under development. There are several parts necessary for ODBC: - You must have an ODBC compliant client application. This can be products like Microsoft Access, Lotus Approach, etc. These products produce a sort of "generic" SQL call. - Next you need the Windows Control Panel Manager for ODBC. This is usually included when you purchase ODBC drivers and controls all of the settings and whatnot necessary to connect your application to the ODBC driver. - The driver itself. Although the client application makes generic calls, you need to have a specific ODBC driver for the database format that you want to reach. Q+E sells an ODBC Library Pack that has about 20+ drivers for most database formats, including Informix. These are installed via the Control Panel Manager. - The necessary protocol transport software for that particular database server. ie: I-Net, SQL*Net, whatever. The drivers are available in two different classes or "levels" of functionality, ranging from read-only to a full read-write and support of indexes. Currently the ODBC standard is being re-written to accommodate the speed and functionality that users are demanding. ODBC connections are going to be a little slower than a specific .DLL or something that has been written. A direct driver is not only going to be able to take advantage of some of the performance things that are unique to Informix, but ODBC adds an additional layer between you and your data. ODBC does give you a way to get to data that normally isn't available to your client application because the designer did not include a particular format in the original design. -- Doug Mason, Windows Czar "Real men don't read docs..." Informix Software, Inc. dmason@informix.com Menlo Park, Ca 94025 +01 415.926.6917