[WinMac] More on Augsoft and Mac ODBC Connectivity

Barry Lockard(barry[at]bgs.com)
Tue, 29 Sep 1998 15:02:28 -0400

What is ODBC?

Regarding the 9/17 post on Mac ODBC...ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity)
is a cross-platform "standard" Microsoft rolled-out some years back. The
idea was to make it easier for various productivity apps (anything from a
db-type package to a spreadsheet) to talk to various types of data
storage formats, and to make it easier for developers to write apps that
talk to whatever type of data engine was appropriate for the job at hand
(i.e.--keep using your fave development environment/language, use any
data engine you needed, ODBC could make the connection work for you).
Instead of your spreadsheet needing code for how to deal w/ xbase formats
vs Oracle vs MS Access vs...or the developer having to find an API
package in his chosen language that implements access to a particular
data format...now everyone could just work to ODBC and let ODBC handle
the particular flavor of data engine being used. ODBC has successfully
driven out some products designed to mediate between an app and a
"foreign" db format, but, despite the fact that ODBC can be very slow in
some situations vs "native" db connectivity, it has enabled a variety of
products to talk to any of a variety of db formats with some "ease",
though initially configuring & installing ODBC drivers can sometimes be a
problem.

At its simplest level, the way it works is that the app (say a
spreadsheet) knows how to utilize data from a database by "talking" in
the language of ODBC...it makes ODBC API calls. Then depending upon what
type of database it needs to talk to an ODBC driver must be present that
can translate from generic ODBC requests to the specific steps required
to do the action on the particular data format being used. By supporting
ODBC, rather than say just Oracle, the spreadsheet app now can work with
any data engine that can work with ODBC.

What does the Augsoft product do?

What the product mentioned <http://www.augsoft.com/router/> does is give
you a "client" app that can run on your Mac alongside your main app (a
productivity app like Office or something you've custom coded). The main
app can make ODBC calls to work with data in a database. The client will
transmit those calls up to a server program on an NT server. That server
program has ODBC drivers that let it talk to whatever db necessary, then
return the result back to the Mac.

Why is it good for Mac users?

The value of this product is that it can let ANY ODBC-aware Mac apps
(such as Hypercard, Office, FileMaker, Code Warrior, Visual Cafe,
PowerObjects, MacPERL, 4D, MPW, OMNIS 7, Tcl/Tk, etc) talk to ANY
ODBC-aware data engines that aren't available on the Mac platform and not
supported by any other Mac-based ODBC solution (like MS Access, which is
fairly popular, despite being a so-so product). Also, being server based,
as ODBC drivers change (& you can end up needing an unwieldy number of
them), instead of having to update lots of individual computers that
drivers installed on them you can update just the server & lower your
maintenance costs.

So if you're required to work with some db standard you don't have to
ditch your Mac if you can use the ODBC route to get your work done.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Augsoft, I don't think highly of ODBC, & I
love my Mac (which lives at home)

**********************************************************************
 Barry L. Lockard,
 Principal Technical Writer,
 BMC Software, Inc.,
 One First Avenue,
 Waltham, MA 02254-9111
 781-663-4611
 barry@bgs.com

  "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in
   higher regard those who think alike than those who think
   differently." -- Nietzche

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Tue Sep 29 1998 - 12:11:04 PDT