Exactly! ... Well, not *quite*. :-)

The Bearded One:

Interbase would be the first bet. [...] Should have most of what anyone needs.

'Xackly.

It's a full-featured SQL-92 and partly SQL-96 (or was that -99?) - conforming RDBMS, with stored procedures and triggers and "generators" (Oracle: "Sequences"; M$ $QL: ~"autoincrement columns") and real honest-to-Ghu transactions -- in short, pretty much everything that "MySql" is not.

And in terms of bang-for-the-buck, it handily beats the pants off just about everything except, maybe, PostGreSQL.

I mean, when you look at those download sizes -- 1,800 Mb for Oracle, vs ~2.5 MB for the zipped binary-only version of IB (~13 MB unzipped for the version with source and full .PDF documentation, IIRC), you can't help but scream: "FUCKING BLOATWARE!!!" at the Oracle offering. Sure, it does more -- quite a bit more, I admit -- but a hundred and fifty TIMES more?!? I think not!!!

(How big is PostGreSQL...?)

No, not Fidel -- the other Bearded One:

Borland originally developed it closed source as a production database.

Well, no -- they got it in the bargain, when they bought Ashton-Tate. Anyone remember them...? "of dBase fame"? I recall, a couple years after the merger, when dBase was dying on the vine, somebody (on PC Mag as I recall; maybe Bill Machrone or Jim Seymour) speculated that they'd actually bought A-T for InterBase, not dBase...

Anyway -- Ashton-Tate didn't develop it either. They bought Groton Data Systems[*], which had been founded by the developer(s?) of InterBase, Jim Starkey (and his SO Ann Harrison?), after their erstwhile employer Digital Equipment decided to go with another system known as "Rdb" (for "Relational Data Base", I assume) as their RDBMS in stead. Wonder what became of it? Look around that Oracle site, and you'll find a product called "Oracle Rdb" somewhere...

Then a few years ago (something like the 1996 - 1998 time frame) Borland had decided to spin off IB so it was transferred to a separate daughter company, InterBase Inc... Then they changed their minds, pulled it back in, and said they were going to liquidate it by giving it away to a "New Company, Inc" and making the code Open Source... Then they partly changed their minds again and pulled it back in -- a Borland "Open" version is still available on SourceForge, but:

1) much of the IB developer and user community flocked to A) "communities" like the quickly-forked "'Real' Open Source" project, at [link|http://firebird.sourceforge.net/|[link|http://firebird.[**]sourceforge.net/|http://firebird.[**]sourceforge.net/]] and [link|http://interbase2000.org/|The Interbase Developer Initiative]; and B) to what would have become the "New Company, Inc" (and was for a while known as "InterBase, Inc") and is now called [link|http://www.ibphoenix.com/|IBPhoenix] (Phoenix -- "rising from the ashes", geddit?), led by -- none other than "ms InterBase", Ann Harrison! and

2) Borland just released a [link|http://www.borland.com/interbase/|version 6.5], most of the new bits of which (IIUC) are only available as paid-for closed-source from Borland.

So much for the history -- it wasn't Borland that "originally developed it closed source", but they did and still at least half-way do own it.

[*] Groton is a place in New England somewhere, prolly Machahachahoosetts, where Starkey and Harrison lived and worked back then. You can still see traces of it in InterBase's default "gds32.dll" system file name and "BlahBlah.gdb" database filename extension.

[**]: "Fire-Bird" = "Phoenix", geddit?

Close to I-95 and Long Island Sound, across the river from New London, CT, and home to Electric Boat and Subase New London.

Electric Boat is the descendent of Holland Electric Boat, which built the first practical submarine, and is one of two yards (Newport News in Virginia is the other) still building US nuclear submarines. They built all the Trident submarines.

Subase New London is an attack submarine base (IIRC the USS Seawolf is based there) and is also home to the US Navy Submarine School.

The US Coast Guard Academy is close by. So is Mystic, CT, home to the Mystic Seaport, Mystic Marinelife Aquarium, and location of the file "Mystic Pizza".

It's a cute little area, but there's not much else around.

And, based on what Norm wants to do (brush up on DBA skills to improve his job skills), both Oracle and PostreSQL are better choices than IB.

Tony
Who lived in Groton while going through sub school

Post #21,553 by ThinlyVeiled 12/14/01 7:28:32 PM Reply	Exactly! ... Well, not quite. :-) The Bearded One: Interbase would be the first bet. [...] Should have most of what anyone needs. 'Xackly. It's a full-featured SQL-92 and partly SQL-96 (or was that -99?) - conforming RDBMS, with stored procedures and triggers and "generators" (Oracle: "Sequences"; M$ $QL: ~"autoincrement columns") and real honest-to-Ghu transactions -- in short, pretty much everything that "MySql" is not. And in terms of bang-for-the-buck, it handily beats the pants off just about everything except, maybe, PostGreSQL. I mean, when you look at those download sizes -- 1,800 Mb for Oracle, vs ~2.5 MB for the zipped binary-only version of IB (~13 MB unzipped for the version with source and full .PDF documentation, IIRC), you can't help but scream: "FUCKING BLOATWARE!!!" at the Oracle offering. Sure, it does more -- quite a bit more, I admit -- but a hundred and fifty TIMES more?!? I think not!!! (How big is PostGreSQL...?) No, not Fidel -- the other Bearded One: Borland originally developed it closed source as a production database. Well, no -- they got it in the bargain, when they bought Ashton-Tate. Anyone remember them...? "of dBase fame"? I recall, a couple years after the merger, when dBase was dying on the vine, somebody (on PC Mag as I recall; maybe Bill Machrone or Jim Seymour) speculated that they'd actually bought A-T for InterBase, not dBase... Anyway -- Ashton-Tate didn't develop it either. They bought Groton Data Systems[], which had been founded by the developer(s?) of InterBase, Jim Starkey (and his SO Ann Harrison?), after their erstwhile employer Digital Equipment decided to go with another system known as "Rdb" (for "Relational Data Base", I assume) as their RDBMS in stead. Wonder what became of it? Look around that Oracle site, and you'll find a product called "Oracle Rdb" somewhere... Then a few years ago (something like the 1996 - 1998 time frame) Borland had decided to spin off IB so it was transferred to a separate daughter company, InterBase Inc... Then they changed their minds, pulled it back in, and said they were going to liquidate it by giving it away to a "New Company, Inc" and making the code Open Source... Then they partly changed their minds again and pulled it back in -- a Borland "Open" version is still available on SourceForge, but: 1) much of the IB developer and user community flocked to A) "communities" like the quickly-forked "'Real' Open Source" project, at [link\|http://firebird.sourceforge.net/\|[link\|http://firebird.[]sourceforge.net/\|http://firebird.[]sourceforge.net/]] and [link\|http://interbase2000.org/\|The Interbase Developer Initiative]; and B) to what would have become the "New Company, Inc" (and was for a while known as "InterBase, Inc") and is now called [link\|http://www.ibphoenix.com/\|IBPhoenix] (Phoenix -- "rising from the ashes", geddit?), led by -- none other than "ms InterBase", Ann Harrison! and 2) Borland just released a [link\|http://www.borland.com/interbase/\|version 6.5], most of the new bits of which (IIUC) are only available as paid-for closed-source from Borland. So much for the history -- it wasn't Borland that "originally developed it closed source", but they did and still at least half-way do own it. [] Groton is a place in New England somewhere, prolly Machahachahoosetts, where Starkey and Harrison lived and worked back then. You can still see traces of it in InterBase's default "gds32.dll" system file name and "BlahBlah.gdb" database filename extension. [**]: "Fire-Bird" = "Phoenix", geddit?
Post #21,556 by tonytib 12/14/01 8:38:49 PM Reply	Groton, Conneticut Close to I-95 and Long Island Sound, across the river from New London, CT, and home to Electric Boat and Subase New London. Electric Boat is the descendent of Holland Electric Boat, which built the first practical submarine, and is one of two yards (Newport News in Virginia is the other) still building US nuclear submarines. They built all the Trident submarines. Subase New London is an attack submarine base (IIRC the USS Seawolf is based there) and is also home to the US Navy Submarine School. The US Coast Guard Academy is close by. So is Mystic, CT, home to the Mystic Seaport, Mystic Marinelife Aquarium, and location of the file "Mystic Pizza". It's a cute little area, but there's not much else around. And, based on what Norm wants to do (brush up on DBA skills to improve his job skills), both Oracle and PostreSQL are better choices than IB. Tony Who lived in Groton while going through sub school
Post #21,560 by Ashton 12/14/01 9:20:48 PM Reply	Yah.. I dropped in there for breakfast on my marathon I-95 drive from Boston to Miami {ugh} Nothing going on that I could see. Sleeepy. Ashton hardly the final word on Groton.
Post #21,557 by wharris2 12/14/01 8:47:29 PM Reply	Now that potential Santa season is almost over... I may be losing the beard. It was, in some ways, insurance against being deinstalled. Good (if temporary) money for Real Beard Santas, so I hear. "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth

Welcome to IWETHEY!