vb4linux-dev

[VB4Linux-Dev] I hate subjects

[Abhijit P. <spa...@pn...>]

hey all!
I have almost finished working on the GUI components.
I would now like to get started with the implementation data access
components and want to start a discussion about it.

The problem is that on the M$ platform, we have stuff like ODBC and
DSN...how do we implement this in Linux? Also, what database server do we
support?
If the VB app uses an access database, it does not have things like users
and passwords. How do we port this to linux?

For the ActiveX Components, do we use Bonobo or KOM?

Regards,
Abhijit Paithankar

Re: [VB4Linux-Dev] I hate subjects

[Matthew K. <kel...@po...>]

Abhijit Paithankar wrote:
> The problem is that on the M$ platform, we have stuff like ODBC and
> DSN...how do we implement this in Linux? Also, what database server do we
> support?
> If the VB app uses an access database, it does not have things like users
> and passwords. How do we port this to linux?

	I *strongly* think that in the realm of DB access, VB4Linux needs to
shoot off from being a VB clone, and do things in a UN*Xish way. Perl,
for example, does DB's right. There is a generic DB front-end, and then
you plug individual DB-types into IT. So, you can write a Perl program
to the DB API, and change, at will, the actual DB-type you're accessing
by diddling a variable and switching from TDB to mySQL to Oracle, etc.
We shouldn't, IMHO, even TRY to support M$'s flawed DB-model.

-- 

 Matthew Keller
 Enterprise Systems Analyst
 Computing & Technology Services
 Information Services Division
 State University of New York at Potsdam
 
 Website: http://mattwork.potsdam.edu/
 PGP: http://mattwork.potsdam.edu/crypto/

Re: [VB4Linux-Dev] I hate subjects

[Luke-Jr <Mi...@an...>]

Hmm... How about branching off JUST enough so it's not Windows-specific?
For example, have programs refer to .so (I /THINK/ this is the *nix
equivalent) instead of .DLLs and just temperarally ignore that Windows
API using programs will break?
And instead of OCXes, something else (does X have a similar
component?)...

Matthew Keller wrote:
> 
> Abhijit Paithankar wrote:
> > The problem is that on the M$ platform, we have stuff like ODBC and
> > DSN...how do we implement this in Linux? Also, what database server do we
> > support?
> > If the VB app uses an access database, it does not have things like users
> > and passwords. How do we port this to linux?
> 
>         I *strongly* think that in the realm of DB access, VB4Linux needs to
> shoot off from being a VB clone, and do things in a UN*Xish way. Perl,
> for example, does DB's right. There is a generic DB front-end, and then
> you plug individual DB-types into IT. So, you can write a Perl program
> to the DB API, and change, at will, the actual DB-type you're accessing
> by diddling a variable and switching from TDB to mySQL to Oracle, etc.
> We shouldn't, IMHO, even TRY to support M$'s flawed DB-model.
> 
> --
> 
>  Matthew Keller
>  Enterprise Systems Analyst
>  Computing & Technology Services
>  Information Services Division
>  State University of New York at Potsdam
> 
>  Website: http://mattwork.potsdam.edu/
>  PGP: http://mattwork.potsdam.edu/crypto/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> VB4Linux-Dev mailing list
> VB4...@li...
> http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vb4linux-dev

Re: [VB4Linux-Dev] I hate subjects

[Matthew K. <kel...@po...>]

Luke-Jr wrote:
> Hmm... How about branching off JUST enough so it's not Windows-specific?
> For example, have programs refer to .so (I /THINK/ this is the *nix
> equivalent) instead of .DLLs and just temperarally ignore that Windows
> API using programs will break?
> And instead of OCXes, something else (does X have a similar
> component?)...

	I know that other groups have tried implementing M$'s DB scheme on UNIX
(most notable, the StarOffice Suite), but have had a miserable time at
it. You could check the StarOffice source, I think that their MDB stuff
is still in there, although it's probably "IFDEF"'d out so it doesn't
compile in. In order to implement this we would most definitely have to
build an ODBC/DSN system for UNIX, and that would, IMHO, detract from
the otherwise noble goal of bringing a really-cool rapid application
development language/interface to the Linux/UNIX world. I guess it comes
down to do you want 95% of Windows-built VB apps to work 80% of the
time, or 80% of the Windows-built VB apps to work 95% of the time. :) I,
personally, think offering *nix database support using the same VB DB
interface is a far more noble/better goal, than offering M$DB support,
but then again, I'm biased. ;)
	X itself has no OCX-equivalent, however the GTK programming language
does have a very OCXish object file model. .so's are, more or less, the
equivalent to .DLL's, the problem is that the only place where they are
used, really, is within the kernel and operating system. Apache web
server has .so support, and a couple of other packages, but most UNIX
apps prefer static linking libraries to dynamic ones.
-- 

 Matthew Keller
 Enterprise Systems Analyst
 Computing & Technology Services
 Information Services Division
 State University of New York at Potsdam
 
 Website: http://mattwork.potsdam.edu/
 PGP: http://mattwork.potsdam.edu/crypto/