Firebird News

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Firebird Conference: Call For Papers


The Third Firebird Worldwide Conference will take place at the
Hotel Olsanka in Prague, Czech Republic.

The opening session will be on Sunday evening, 13th November 2005.
Sessions will run through to the evening of Tuesday 15th November 2005
(closing session)

Call for Speaker Papers

Are you, or is anyone you know, interested in being a speaker at the
conference?

Ideally, each speaker should offer to do at least two sessions, although
it isn't an absolute requirement. We would accept a single session if the
topic is considered interesting enough.

A session will last for 50 minutes plus 10 minutes for turnaround amd questions.
If your talk takes more than a single session, then it should span multiple sessions.
If your session is especially popular you may be asked to repeat it.

The opening session on Sunday evening will take place in a large lecture hall.
Four smaller rooms are available all day for for Monday and Tuesday and a
lecture hall is available for afternoon sessions that are likely to have larger
audiences. The closing session will be in the lecture hall on Tuesday evening.

It is expected that conference tracks will cover the following issues

Migrating to Firebird from other databases, why you chose Firebird and
how you are using it, installation and configuration.

Understanding, developing with and using Firebird
Firebird engine development, Firebird internals (including Vulcan),
QA, Documentation, Firebird Project

Connectivity and application development with Firebird (e.g. Delphi,
Java, C++, .NET, ODBC, ADO, BDE, JDBC, IBO, PHP)

Firebird third party tools and applications

Local language topics (e.g. German, French, Czech etc)

Each topic description should indicate the possible track, a title and at
least 200 words outlining the main points of your talk. Once we have received
the outline we will let you know whether you have been accepted as a speaker.

Prospective speakers, please send your outlines to pbeach@ibphoenix.com, by
August 31st 2005.

Compensation

Speakers who are resident in Europe will be reimbursed 800.00 Euros. Those from
other countries will be reimbursed $1400.00 USD. Hotel accommodation will be
provided for the three conference nights, from the Sunday night until checkout
on the Wednesday morning.


Publication of Papers

Each selected speaker will be expected to turn in a technical paper in electronic
(HTML - Hypertext markup language) form for each abstract topic originally approved.
All illustrations and graphics pertaining to each paper must also be submitted.
The papers should contain enough detail to enable a reader to fully understand the
topic without benefit of a physical presentation. Speakers may also submit samples
of code and/or presentation slides.

All accepted papers will be published electronically on a conference CD for the
attendees after the conference. We may choose to sell the conference proceedings
CD outside of the conference, or publish items separately. By submitting materials
to the Firebird conference, you grant the Firebird Foundation permission to use,
reproduce, audio/video record amd distribute your materials.


Paul Beach
Main Tel (UK):+44 (0) 1844 354357
Mobile: (UK): +44 (0) 7837 898072

..::::.::::.::::..

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

INTL branch merged into HEAD (2.0)

After a short freeze

HEAD [Branch] is open for development again. You may notice some
issues trying to deal with the new ICU stuff, but they're
easy to solve. The tree is completely buildable.


Dmitry

..::::..

Stored Procedure Generator Version 1 - open source

TECT Software Ltd announce the immediate availability of Stored Procedure Generator Version 1 an open source (IDPL) application which generates stored procedures for almost any Firebird or Interbase table.

..::::..

Flamerobin - a new blog

Planet firebird is expanding ,now with a new
addition flamerobin blog

..::::..

Monday, May 30, 2005

FreeWPS CMS supports Firebird

The FreeWPS CMS has fixed some bugs and now supports
Firebird as Backend.
Please, download freewps version >= 2.11 for firebird
support

I installed it on Fedora Core 3 with PHP 4.3.11,
FirebirdSS 1.5.2 and Apache 2.0.52, and it's
working OK.

http://www.ytztech.com/freewps/

--
Dimitrios Chr. Ioannidis
.::::.

New Firebird Expert book - IBExpert

The IBExpert Book - Tools for Database Developers by Holger Klemt and Debra Miles is now available. The table of contents and sample chapters are available here. Free CD, including Firebird and IBExpert software, video tutorials and additional information, enclosed with all direct orders (while stocks last)
.::::.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Second edition of DBFreeMagazine is online

In this number are included articles about Firebird, Mysql and Postgresql
Downloading of second edition is possible by registering and choosing
"download" from left menu .
Registration is free http://www.dbfreemagazine.com.br/
Latest number already passed 1500 downloads in first day!

::::::::

Firebird 2.0 Alpha 2 Released

The Firebird Project is pleased to announce the release today of the second
round of Firebird 2.0 public Alpha kits for immediate download and testing.

This version of Firebird 2 is an alpha version, meant for field testing
only and not for use in production.

All changes and new features are subject to further change and/or
withdrawal in subsequent alpha and beta releases, leading up to final
release. Do not assume that databases created by or upgraded to the on-disk
structure of this alpha will be upwardly compatible with subsequent test
builds/releases.

Bugs, problems, etc. can be posted to the Field Test bug tracker or to the
Firebird Development List.



Firebird 2 release contains a large number of new features. Alpha 2
includes fixes for several problems that showed up in the testing of Alpha
1. Please read the Release Notes for more details.



Downloads of builds for Linux-i686 and Win32 are currently available here:



http://firebird.sourceforge.net/index.php?op=files&id=fb2_alpha02


Feedback, input and comments re this release will be appreciated.

UPDATE: news was sent to this list of sites
::::

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

New Evans database survey

Evans writes: "As a thank you for completing this survey, you may choose to be entered into a drawing to win $1000 (US). Please don't delay, this survey will close soon." The last time Firebird was in a Evans Data survey the results where amazing. All you need to do is to spend 10 minutes on this.

Monday, May 23, 2005

KInterbasDB 3.1.1 released


What is KInterbasDB?
--------------------
KInterbasDB is a Python extension package that implements Python
Database API 2.0-compliant support for the open source relational
database Firebird and some versions of its proprietary cousin Borland
Interbase. In addition to the minimal feature set of the standard
Python DB API, KInterbasDB also exposes nearly the entire native
client API of the database engine.

KInterbasDB is free--covered by a permissive BSD-style license that
both commercial and noncommercial users should find agreeable.


What's new in release 3.1.1?
----------------------------
KInterbasDB 3.1.1 is a maintenance release of the stable 3.1 branch.
A changelog is available here:
http://kinterbasdb.sourceforge.net/dist_docs/changelog.txt


Where can I learn more about and download KinterbasDB?
------------------------------------------------------
http://kinterbasdb.sourceforge.net

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Review of 'SQuirreL SQL Client'

Mention of Firebird jdbc driver in this review

"Adding a new driver, for Firebird for example, is a simple case of
selecting New Driver from the menu, entering the path of the driver Jar
file, entering a sample URL and it's done. To connect to an actual
database is just as simple. Select 'Add New' from the Alias menu, select
the driver, enter the database URL (including the user name) and that's it."
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/05/05/17/216251.shtml

Blob Compress -- Some Numbers

Jim Starkey wrote on firebird-architect (after a long
discussion about advantages of compressing blobs):

I took a "documents" table from one of my production databases and
crunched some numbers. The table had 1,377 blob with summarized as follows:

MIMETYPE COUNT Average Size Average Compressed Size
----------------------------- ----- ------------ -----------------------

application/msword 768 122767 88694
application/octet-stream 420 108876 82103
application/pdf 153 1048402 896624
application/vnd.lotus-wordpro 4 41423 17888
application/vnd.ms-excel 3 79872 20694
application/vnd.rn-realmedia 9 3583755 3272342
application/x-macbinary 1 19968 1702
image/gif 3 37806 37745
image/jpeg 1 133523 124465
image/pjpeg 6 245316 238838
text/html 8 16459 4528
text/plain 1 1 9

The aggregate size of the blobs was 334,948,746. The blobs represent
whatever the government workers in the city of Amesbury, Massachusetts
thought was worth sharing. Normal content is managed in Word, which
explains the heavy skew. The Word documents had a total of about 1200
images, mostly jpegs.

I compressed each block with zlib using default settings, writing both
the original and the compressed versions to a new table. The aggregate
size of the compressed blobs was 271,077,508 bytes.

I started a Netfrastructure server from scratch and fetched all
uncompressed blobs of the new table. I restarted the server and fetch
and decompressed all compressed blobs. The elapsed time for the
uncompressed blobs was about 64 seconds, the elapse times for fetching
and decompressing the compressed blobs was about 58 seconds.

Explain how metadata comments syntax works in 2.0

Claudio Implemented the proposed COMMENT keyword to allow descriptions in database objects. Subject to change or withdrawal.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Firebird 2.0 GC implementation gives 5x boost on AS3AP multiuser benchmark

I have executed AS3AP benchmark suite with Firebird 2.0 Alpha 2 and can report approx. 5x boost for a multiuser tests with 10 OLTP tests in background and one SELECT in foreground (the last phase of AS3AP multiuser benchmark):

- Firebird 1.5 performs ~130 fetches within 30 seconds in embedded mode;

- Firebird 2.0 performs ~630 fetches within 30 seconds using wire protocol, it is slower than embedded, but fbembed.dll throws ACCESS_VIOLATION.

Good job!

Roman

Friday, May 13, 2005

UIB 2 Final Release - Yet another lazarus/firebird kind of components

  • New component TJvUIBConfig.
  • New component TJvUIBRepair.
  • New component TJvUIBSecurity (thanks to Volkan Ceylan).
  • New component TJvUIBEvents.
  • Rewritten TJvUIBScript to handle large script.
  • Corrected dataset and FPC 1.9.6 compatibility.
  • Improved TJvUIBDatabase to retrieve database informations.
  • Corrected "jvuibmetadata" to retrieve array informations.
  • Read/write faster NUMERIC data types. (thanks to Volkan Ceylan).
  • Delphi 2005 for win32 compatibility.
  • new compiler option: "HAVE_SYNEDIT", if you don't want to use synedit, desactivate this option in jvuib.inc.
  • Firebird 2 compatibility.
  • Again faster :)

    Compatibility with previous version

  • In previous version of TJvUIBBackUp & TJvUIBRestore you need to implement the OnVerbose event to wait for the end of the operation. Now you also have to set the new "verbose" property to true.
  • If you use the dataset with persistent BCD fields you have to regenerate them
  • http://www.progdigy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1

    Thursday, May 12, 2005

    FIBL 0.6 - FreeIBComponents for Lazarus

    Version 0.6 is released to sourceforge area


    FIB for Lazarus (FIBL) is a FreePascal/FCL port of FIB - well known
    components library for access to Interbase/Firebird database server.
    The aim of this project is to provide high quality components library
    to access Firebird server for Lazarus IDE.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    1. Installation
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    - Install Firebird client software to your computer.
    - Copy folder with FIBL to your computer, run Lazarus and install
    package fiblaz.lpk.

    Zeos CVS and Lazarus - another method to connect

    antonio moneto wrote on the lazarus site
    "I finished the necessary modifications so that zeoslib 6.1.5 functioned of satisfactory form in lazarus.
    I placed patch with the necessary modifications in http://sourceforge.net/projects/zeoslib in the section patches. I also declared what it is functioning and what still need modifications, but believe that to have zeoslib functioning (exactly that with some errors) it is a great advance and it comes to add a powerful tool of access the data base and wait to count on the aid of all to become it 100% functionary with the Lazarus"

    From the patches comment there are some problems with firebird . Good news is now many firebird database components for lazarus exists.

    Sqlite Versus Firebird

    Sqlite Versus Firebird - Firebird is open source, cross platform, embeddable, has wrappers for many language. Firebird is a full
    featured database and has a footprint of 2-3 MByte. A good choice when SQLite is too lite. Firebird can be used free of charge even
    for closed source projects.

    Paul Beach


    http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p=SqliteCompetitors

    Friday, May 06, 2005

    FreePascal+Lazarus: Delphi developers you can start migrating to Linux!

    Cabelo writes "Steady, interface of development RAD, visual components of access the data base (Firebird, Interbase and others), components and much more. In this article, we will develop a graphical application as if we were practically using the proper o Delphi.

    Click here

    Excuse-me my Bad English ;-) () Translate in Google.

    [Web Masters note: I would appreciate a more complete translation if someone can provide it. Thanks]"

    FIBL - FreeIBComponents for Lazarus

    ssy writes "I have released the first beta version of FIBL - FreeIBComponents port for Lazarus.
    This version is win32 only and support Firebird 1.5-2.0 servers through fbclient.dll.
    It is not tested very good, so try it and report a bugs please.

    sourceforge.net/projects/fibl"

    Firebird World Conference 2005

    The world-wide Firebird Conference will take place at the
    Hotel Olsanka
    in Prague, Czech Republic, from the evening of Sunday, November 13 (opening session) until the evening of
    Tuesday, November 15 (closing session). There will be a dedicated web-page once we have more details to announce.

    -- Firebird Foundation

    Thursday, May 05, 2005

    The Firebird Book goes electronic!

    The good news for for those who were waiting for a version of "The Firebird Book" to keep online for reference is that Apress has made an e-Book version available at approximately half the price of the real book.

    Wednesday, May 04, 2005

    kinterbasdb (python) on 64bit

    David Rushby responded about 64bit issue

    > Things are indeed very stable now, at least on 32-bit machines. But
    > 64-bit machines are catching on, along with Firebird going to 2.x,
    > both of which will probably entail changes in python and kinterbasdb.

    There was a trivial preprocessor-related problem that prevented
    kinterbasdb 3.1 from compiling out of the box with Firebird 2.0a1, but
    that's fixed in both CVS HEAD and the maint-3-1 branch.

    I tested kinterbasdb on 64-bit Linux (Fedora Core/AMD64) with
    prereleases of Firebird 1.5.1 about a year ago
    (http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=8356329 ), and
    have continued to do so since. There were two or three 64-bit
    cleanness issues in kinterbasdb back then, which I fixed.

    A more likely source of problems (though not on AMD64) is
    big-endianness. I haven't so much as compiled kinterbasdb, or any
    other software, on a big-endian machine. Even though I have an
    adequate understanding of endianness, it'd be easy to let a bug of that
    sort slip by at 02:15 some morning. I suppose I could use the SF
    compile farm for that purpose, but I haven't gotten around to it.

    The intersection of the Firebird and Python

    David Rushby wrote on firebird-python group:

    The intersection of the Firebird and Python communities is small, and I
    make next to no attempt to market kinterbasdb. However, I attribute
    the slowdown of activity on the kinterbasdb SF forum and the lack of it
    here more to the increasing stability of the code and the expansion of
    the documentation than to the atrophy of the user community. SF
    project stats haven't worked for months, so I can't draw conclusions
    from them, but hits to the front page haven't decreased.

    I don't have much time to work on kinterbasdb right now anyway, so the
    lack of activity suits me fine.

    At the top of my kinterbasdb agenda is fixing a bug in the garbage
    collection of event queues that can cause a segfault upon process exit.
    After that's solved, or if I fail to solve it in a timely manner, I
    plan to release 3.1.1, which'll contain a few minor fixes.

    For 3.2, here are some planned features listed in descending order by
    their urgency to me:

    ---

    1) Streaming blob support:
    http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1194897&forum_id=30917

    2) Better support for concurrency, probably not enabled in default
    builds due to the concurrency limitations in the local Windows protocol
    implemented by FB <= 1.5.
    3) Allow the client programmer the option of explicitly controlling statement
    preparation in a manner decoupled from execution. kinterbasdb currently exposes
    no way for the client programmer to control the caching of prepared statements;
    it's performed behind the scenes, and rather simplistically.
    http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1120117&forum_id=30917

    4) More dynamic Unicode support. This one is a low priority for me, so
    even after 3.2 development gets underway, it'll probably take another
    Jacobi-prompt to trigger a detailed discussion and subsequent
    implementation of this particular feature.
    http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1080135&forum_id=30917

    ---

    A few 3.2 features have already been implemented in CVS HEAD:
    - An official implementation of dynamic type translator support for
    Python 2.4's standard library decimal module.
    - A more convenient alternative to Connection.database_info, called
    Connection.db_info, was contributed by Pavel Cisar.

    I don't know when I'll get underway with the implementation of 3.2 in
    earnest, but it'll probably be some months yet (circa October 2005,
    maybe?). I hope to find the time to implement streaming blob support
    sooner, since its absence is a serious problem for some users rather
    than merely an inconvenience.

    Tuesday, May 03, 2005

    Enterprise Library for Firebid moved to GotDotNet

    I finally decided to host my project on GotDotNet.

    I will publish there new releases, news (with RSS feeds!) and so on. Here
    you can find a bug tracker and a message board: please feel free to use them!


    Right now, I've moved here the first two releases (0.6 and 0.7.0). Maybe
    in a few days I will begin using the source control.

    I do believe this will benefit Firebird .NET users!


    PPS: Now that the beta 2 is out, in a few days I'll begin working on a membership
    API provider. Probably I will build it against FirebirdClient 2.0.

    --
    Andrea Sansottera
    Weblog [Italian]: http://blogs.ugidotnet.org/andrew




    lazarus and firebird - mini howto

    The concept is exactly the same as in Delphi: you have a TDataset descendent which
    accesses the database of your choice. Possible are:
    - MySQL (not recommended, MySQL API is unstable: it changes too frequently)
    - PostGreSQL
    - Firebird/Interbase (Recommended)
    - SQLite (not recommended for CGI apps)
    - Simple DBF.

    To start, install the latest lazarus, and install the SQLBDLaz package.
    After that, there should be a TSQLQuery component and some connection
    components (one for each database). Set the SQL property, connect the
    TSQLQuery to the appropriate connection and you should be all set.

    Recently, ZeosLib was ported to Lazarus, so that should be usable as
    well, but I haven't seen an installation package yet.
    Michael Van Canneyt

    Update :

    You can install the SQLDBLaz package in Lazarus by choosing Components
    -> Open package file and choose \components\sqldb\sqldblaz.lpk

    See also: http://lazarus-ccr.sourceforge.net/kb/index.php/Install_Packages
    Feel free to update these documentation, if something is not clear enough.

    Regards,

    Vincent

    Thursday, April 28, 2005

    Java UDF and procedures support in Firebird

    It's been a while since we have published a document describing possible
    architecture to support external procedures written in different languages.
    Today we have released first preview version of Java support in Firebird.

    This release includes a modified version of Firebird 2.0 (though it is quite
    old version), modified version of JayBird 1.5.5 and few examples that show
    ability to call arbitrary Java code as an UDF, selectable procedure, and
    also an example of trigger accessing the new.* and old.* contexts.

    This is experimental stuff, server might crash, might corrupt the database.
    Do not use it in production environment. Main goal of this release is to
    show what we have been working on and to gather your comments and
    suggestions.

    As I wrote, I am away till end of the week, please post your questions to
    the mailing list, Eugeney Putilin will try to answer your questions.

    Files can be downloaded from JayBird Wiki:


    http://jaybirdwiki.firebirdsql.org/download/Downloads

    Roman

    Wednesday, April 27, 2005

    System Defined Functions

    >  I came across this document
    > (http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,27563,00.html) which gives an
    > idea about extending Interbase using SDF (not UDF) which I found quite
    > interesting. OOI could the same methodology apply to FB?

    Written late 1999, remember this discussion well.
    It was on the back of
    http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&page=ibp_70_thoughts

    "Standard Function Library

    Most other database products have a large complement of built-in functions. We are definitely behind the curve in this area. We
    should have many more functions than we currently have, even with the UDF library we provide.

    It's a great feature to permit users to write their own UDFs. However, most users don't want to spend the time and effort to design,
    compile, debug, declare, and deploy their own function libraries. They want these functions to be present by default, especially for
    commonly used functions that are ubiquitous in other database products.

    We should have functions implemented in the engine, not as a UDF library. Making the functions built-in allows them to be used on
    NetWare and makes them more convenient to use on all platforms. It also simplifies installation and maintenance because no auxiliary
    UDF library is needed.

    See the list of functions in other database products at the end of this document."

    We are already doing it.... Any new function added directly to the engine currently uses this
    mechanism.

    Paul Beach

    Tuesday, April 26, 2005

    Looking for a robust database system?

    THE little known open source relational database management system FirebirdSQL is finally gaining momentum and recognition.

    Read full article by loke kar seng

    Request for V2 linux snapshots

    I found that the linux snapshots are fairly outdated, the ones in

    http://www.firebirdsql.org/download/snapshot_builds/linux/fb2/

    are from 15-2-2005. Why aren't they included in the automatic build
    mechanism (any more)?

    Volker
    [ed : agrees with his request]

    Stored Procedure Generator Version 1 (Beta) released under the IDPL (Open Source license)

    TECT Software Ltd are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Stored Procedure Generator Version 1 (Beta) under the IDPL Open Source license. Full source can be downloaded from their website. This is the first step in making all their products Open Source.

    Open Source ODBC Driver V2.0 (Beta) released

    Updated Beta 2.0 (114) ODBC Driver libraries are available.

    Fbtalk (fbtalk.net) reloaded

    FBTalk (http://www.fbtalk.net) has been re-launched as a web based
    forum for users of Firebird RDBMS. It includes several topics for
    Firebird users to use and participate in, including:

    o Support Area.
    o Online Firebird related Polls.
    o 3rd Party Announcements.
    o Links section.

    I would like to invite all FB users to visit FBTalk
    (http://www.tectsoft.net/) and help build a new web
    based community forum dedicated to Firebird.

    ------
    Si Carter

    There are plenty of others carving up Oracle's lunch

    I received many emails after last week's column on open-source databases, reminding me there are plenty of others carving up Oracle's lunch.

    They are absolutely right, and PostgreSQL and Firebird, in particular, deserve a mention alongside mySQL. Email me if you've seen big Aussie installations.

    http://xrl.us/fvxu (Link to australianit.news.com.au)

    Bruce McCabe is an independent analyst and managing director of S2 Intelligence.


    Firebird 2.0 Alpha 2 on the way

    Anyone having pending checkins to the HEAD please either commit today
    or defer your commit until the tree is tagged. If anyone knows about
    some Alpha 2 release showstopper, please reply here. The tree will be
    tagged tomorrow.

    Dmitry

    [ed: list of fixes in Alpha 2]



    SMP in Firebird, Vulcan - defined

    I presume we agree on the definition of SMP -- two more
    processes sharing memory and scheduling symmetrically.
    By SMP friendly, I mean a system that can effectively utilize
    the resources effectively.

    Firebird classic was designed for clusters (as defined by DEC),
    which now exist only on VMS and some research envvironments.
    Anything thatcan run a cluster is just strolling on SMP.

    There are distinct downside to classic -- it can thrash under
    heavy update load, security enforcement is nil, and you have
    to trust application programs not to walk on the lock table
    and page nubbers.If you can live with those constraints, it's
    as SMP friendly as a database gets.

    Vulcan, I hope, gives the benefits of classic without any of
    the drawbacks. If you want or need super high bandwidth database
    access,you can tweak the configuration files run in classic more
    or even hybrid.


    --

    Jim Starkey
    Netfrastructure, Inc.

    Monday, April 25, 2005

    Firebird 2 Nightly Snapshot Builds

    This is a daily snapshot build. It is intended for Firebird
    developers and experienced beta testers. It is generated automatically.
    It is untested. It comes with no guarantees. It may work and it may screw up
    your system. Do not use it unless you know what you are doing.
    Nightly download area (for windows only)

    Straws In The Wind:[Firebird] Database

    "I got an email recently from a long time associate of mine, Paul Beach,
    who is now deeply involved in the FireBird Open Source project. He tells
    me that several developers he knows are developing applications with
    FireBird for deploying on USB memory sticks – a kind of "application on
    a stick". The relevance of FireBird to this is that FireBird is
    extremely economic in terms of space (and yet scales very well)."

    http://xrl.us/fvkz (Link to www.it-director.com)

    HP-UX ,AIX and MVS support added to native JDBC-JCA Driver

    Quote from the build_native.xml

    Currently Supported Platforms:
    Platform Compiler/Linker
    AIX xlC (Visual Age compiler)
    HP-UX aCC (HP aCC+ compiler)
    Linux GCC
    MVS z/OS os390 (c++)
    Solaris GCC, CC (Sun ONE compiler)
    Windows MSVC 6

    MVS Requirements:
    =================
    Jaybird was successfully built on MVS using z/OS. Several steps were
    necessary to work around the ASCII/EBCDIC character issues.

    Saturday, April 23, 2005

    Poor Boy’s Oracle - Open Source Oracle (and free)

    "In the midst of my metamorphosis into a web-standards adherent, I
    suddenly got bit (again) by the database bug. This is to blame, the
    first really decent book written (in English) on the Firebird database
    platform. In my efforts to “fill out the toolbox,” I’ve been searching
    for a decent database platform that won’t kill my meager (read:
    non-existent) budget." ....

    http://rdc.nowhereville.com/wp/index.php?p=554

    .net 2.0 Beta 2 and Firebird .net provider updates

    I have done some updates this week on v2.0 sources to get it working with the .NET Framework 2.0 Beta 2.

    I'm thinking on release an Alpha 1 for testing, but, before i want to known opinions :)

    Some things to have in mind:

    * The releases will be done using FirebirdClient name.

    * There are changes in public namespaces name's:

    FirebirdSql.Data.Firebird -> FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient
    FirebirdSql.Data.Firebird.Services -> FirebirdSql.Data.Services
    FirebirdSql.Data.Firebird.Isql -> FirebirdSql.Data.Isql

    * The CommandBuilder now inherits from the DbCommandBuilder .NET Framework class and uses his command generation.

    * There will be no documentation package for now, as i'm thinking on left only documentation on Firebird and FirebirdClient specific features that are no covered by the .NET Framework documentation.

    * The Schema support remains unchanged.

    * The design time support needs testing but i'm not too much worried for now on this topic.

    The nunit test suite is running without errors :) .


    Opinions are welcome

    Carlos Guzmán Álvarez
    Vigo-Spain

    "Is Oracle A Legacy Technology" - feedback :)

    Some feedback created by firebird community (page hits) :


    "Over the last couple of weeks I posted a couple of articles that generated a
    lot of feedback, so much so that I thought it worth posting an update article
    summarising some of the comments I received. The articles were on subjects that
    tend to pretty much divide the Oracle community so it was no surprise that
    opinions were in both cases pretty divergent.
    The first article was entitled "Is Oracle A Legacy
    Technology"
    and was based on a couple of articles by
    Mogens Nørgaard that
    argued that databases are now, like operating systems and disk storage, a
    commodity technology and that the Oracle RBDMS in particular is actually now a

    "legacy" technology. The article was linked to on a number of blogs and
    generated a lot of referrals from the Firebird (an open-source RDBMS)
    news site
    ."

    Full text about feedback is on Mark's weblog
    (even some responses from microsoft)

    Loading Video from a Database Table with JDBC

    "While playing with Java Player class, I came to the following problem: How to feed the Player with a multimedia stream from a database table"

    In anoter post he shows how to load images from database (blobs)

    My database professor at school recommends ...

    Quote of the day :
    "I was able to get the MySQL and Firebird databases installed on MacOS X. My database professor at school recommends Interbase, so Firebird is the closest thing I can come to a reliable substitute. Not bad since Firebird is based upon the Interbase source."
    found it on this blog post

    Thursday, April 21, 2005

    don't use MBCS characters in the database name or folder

    Long story short :
    "If the DB file's path or filename contains
    some extended characters or east-asian characters
    (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.), the connection to the
    db cannot be initialized."


    Sean Leyne answered to bug report:

    "As to your specific problem; there are no plans for this case
    to be fixed for the v2.0 release.

    There is a simple workaround, which is available -- don't use
    MBCS characters in the database name or folder. It is not
    the best answer, but it does work."

    Wednesday, April 20, 2005

    Firebird at The Examiner Newspaper

    The Examiner Newspaper is Australia's second-oldest
    newspaper, first appearing on March 12, 1842.
    We use Firebird for a variety of core-business
    processes, from web-based information gathering
    from advertising clients, to internal CRM and
    Directory services.

    The need arose for a database with a proven track record,
    stability, and performance under unpredictable loas.
    With ~200 workstations in 7 sites, our data storage
    needs had to be available 24/7, as a newspaper relies
    on the data it receives - No data, no newspaper.

    Firebird, with it's ~20 years of growth and enterprise use,
    was the ideal choice for our organisation. Now with 5
    databases collectively storing ~3GB of data, not a single
    minute has been lost due to administration time.

    Firebird has proven itself to be the right choice for us.

    Nigel Weeks
    Tech Support & Systems Developer

    Tuesday, April 19, 2005

    New forum added to firebird planetarium
    the semi official forum is located on devshed.com

    FogCreek considers to support Firebird wiithin FogBugz

    Joel Spolsky says: "I've been seriously considering Firebird for a
    future
    release."
    See: http://support.fogcreek.com/default.asp?fogbugz.4.1650.3

    BTW: FogBugz is a project management system for software teams
    (http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz)

    Saturday, April 16, 2005

    Firebird RDBMS supported in phpbb 2.1.x

    It was posted on phpbb development forums

    "To download the new version CVS snapshots you need to use the 2.1.x column on the snapshots page"

    Thursday, April 14, 2005

    Firebird in Mandriva 10.2 official!

    Philippe Makowski wrote on general list:

    Not, on the cd's (not enough space :( )
    but there is an official rpm in the last offcial distrib

    cf :
    http://rpms.mandrakeclub.com/rpms/mandrake/official/10.2/i586/media/contrib/firebird-1.5.2.4731-0.2mdk.i586.html


    and that before the merge with Connectiva.

    New Firebird's slogan -- a summary

    Firebird: The legend continues.
    Firebird: Meet the Legend.
    Firebird: Pure Power.
    Firebird: Empower Yourself.
    Firebird: Powerful, Reliable or Easy? Pick any three. (love this one,
    but it's better for e-mail signature than general slogan)
    Firebird: More than database.
    Firebird: Solution that works.
    Firebird forever.
    Firebird: Plain sailing.
    Firebird: What else?
    Firebird: Simply clever. (but it's used by Skoda Auto)
    Firebird: Inspired database.
    Firebird: Just works.
    Firebird: Smart technology.
    Firebird: Proven solution.
    Firebird: A database with vision.

    Many slogans listed above could be mixed to make new ones, for example:

    Firebird: Inspired Technology.
    Firebird: Proven Technology.
    Firebird: More than Technology.
    Firebird: More than Solution.
    etc.

    Best regards
    --Pavel

    Wednesday, April 13, 2005

    TCP_NODELAY is now on (both superserver and classic)

    Currently TcpNoNagle flag in firebird.conf is default on for classic and super servers.
    The Nagle algorithm is described in rfc1122
    and is better explained in Firebird's Closed Features:

    Disabling the TCP/IP Nagle Algorithm typically
    improves speed on slow networks.

    The Nagle TCP/IP algorithm was designed to avoid
    problems with small packets, called tinygrams, on slow
    networks. The algorithm says that a TCP/IP connection
    can have only one outstanding small segment that has
    not yet been acknowledged. The definition of "small"
    varies but usually it is defined as "less than the
    segment size" which on ethernet is about 1500 bytes.

    By default, the socket library will use an internal
    algorithm known as Nagle's algorithm for buffering
    bytes on write before actually sending the data in
    order to minimise actual physical writes.

    mod_auth_firebird - apache module

    Marcus Merrin asked on security focus

    "Has anyone tried to make the equivalent of apache's mod_auth_mysql for
    Firebird? I guess it would be called mod_auth_ibase. It doesn't look
    like it would take too much hacking .."

    Tuesday, April 12, 2005

    VulcanJ production ready

    The VulcanJ test ware should be ready for general use now. I ran the sourceforge copy of the test ware last night against our build of Vulcan using S64, Windows XP, MVS, Linux, and R64 (AIX). The test ware worked on all hosts, although not all of the were clean against Vulcan. :)  I pushed some corrections this morning, to support FB2.0.

    I ran VulcanJ against Firebird 2 on Windows this morning, using the snapshot build, Firebird Version: WI-T2.0.0.10711 Firebird 2.0 Alpha 1. It almost ran clean. There was a problem with CHECK constraints (4 tests) that was reported here earlier and that Dimitry was going to address. The only other problem is an issue where an extra null seems to be appended to error messages when using Jaybird (that I also see with Vulcan, but not FB1.5). I haven't been able to reproduce this problem outside of the Java environment. So, I had 5 failure/errors in total with the FB2.0/Windows.

    I have added Adriano's request to include SET NAMES ASCII in some of the ISQL tests for internationalization reasons, and corrected the binary/ASCII problems from the initial push. And fixed Adriano's comment that output directories were not created properly when they did not exist. Thanks, Adriano!!!

    I discussed privately with Pavel where to put the test ware, and for the time being, it will stay at firebird/VulcanJ in the source tree where it was initially pushed. Not ideal, but ok for now. Pavel is welcome to move it to where he sees fit later.

    Please let me know your experience with the test ware, and if you find any problems.

    -b

    Bill Oliver
    Product Specialist, Base SAS

    Sunday, April 10, 2005

    New switch for gbak

    replace_database switch was dangerous , it was decided to be changed in this thread

    From the firebird2 ChangeLog

    1. New switch for gbak -RECREATE_DATABASE [OVERWRITE].
    Simple RECREATE_DATABASE is equal to CREATE_DATABASE,
    RECREATE_DATABASE OVERWRITE is equal to REPLACE_DATABASE.
    2.gbak uses isc_dpb_overwrite to create database over existing files
    3.engine overwrite existing files only if asked explicitly by
    user by setting isc_dpb_overwrite to 1
    4.fixed unregistered bug - when gbak uses service manager and passed
    command line contains invalid switch. Service reports error and finish
    but not call Service::svc_started therefore response is not send and gbak
    is stalled forever

    Enterprise Library for Firebird 0.7.0

    Enterprise Library data provider for the Firebird database. Distributed under the terms of the LGPL license.

    Changelog:
    * License changed into LGPL

    * Cleaned up "bin" and "obj" directories from some files which were used during the initial development process

    * Minor changes to "NorthwindForFirebird.sql" (thanks to Alessandro Petrelli)

    Download Page


    Firebird related products from TECT Software are available immediately under a freeware license

    TECT Software Ltd announces that all Firebird related products from TECT Software are available immediately under a freeware license. Products included are:

    • Firebird/Interbase Backup Manager
    • Firebird Helm Interface (FBHelm)
    • Firebird/Interbase Stored Procedure Generator
    • Firebird/Interbase Server Properties

    Friday, April 08, 2005

    VulcanJ/Firebird test - imported in cvs

    VulcanJ is a SQL test suite, originally designed for testing the "Vulcan" port Firebird, a popular open-source database. This suite contains two packages - org.firebirdsql.isql and org.firebirdsql.nist

    Tests in the isql package were were previously implemented under QMTest. These tests use Junit to fork an ISQL process and compare the output from the ISQL run to a benchmark log. They do not test the JDBC API at all. These tests can only be used with the Firebird ISQL utility.

    Tests in the nist package are written in Java and can be run against any database that provides a JDBC driver. These tests use JDBC metadata to determine if the database supports transactions, string manipulation, sort order of NULL's, and other database-specific items.

    Tests in the com.sas.nist package are derived from the NIST (National Institue of Standards and Technology) test suite. See http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897/ctg/sql_form.htm.


    Source code can be found in firebird cvs repository
    How to run it is described in introduction document

    Crypto Code in Vulcan


    A few months back we had a long discussion of what crypto libraries to
    use. Mr. O'Donahue was arguing for SSL, I was pushing Crypto++ 4.2, and
    others were mentioned.

    Crypto 4.2, it turns out, neither compiles nor runs on AMD64. Current
    version, 5.2.1, supports AMD64, but has grown enormously, and for all
    practical purposes, is no longer subsettable. My interest has been
    exclusively with DES, SHA-1, and RSA, though I expect to phase out DES
    in favor of AES in the distant future. After weeks of head bashing, I
    have come to the conclusion that Crypto++ and I are going separate ways.

    I've been looking at crypto packages for a couple of weeks now. I'm
    looking for a subsettable crypto package. The requirements are:

    1. Compatible license (BSD, Mozilla, or equivalent)
    2. C++
    3. Subsettable
    4. Support for RSA, DES, SHA, and AES

    I haven't found anything that meets all requirements. To be frank,
    Crypto++ comes closest, but the smallest subset blew my rpm from 3 MB to
    14 MB, requires special switches to extend the internal space in the
    Microsoft C++ compiler, and brings so much extraneous classes that the
    original project gets lost in Visual Studio.

    The basic problem is modularity. RSA, has two functions, public key
    encryption and digital signatures. Digital signatures require a hash
    (the signiture, not unreasonably, specifies the hash), which tends to
    suck in SHA, MD2, MD5, RC4, and who knows what else. Those guys
    invariable pull in x509 certificate stuff that drag in virtually
    everything else in the crypto world.

    A little research has shown that almost all free crypto code goes back
    to SSLeay written by Eric Young. SSLeay is the foundation of OpenSSL
    The license requires that you give Eric Young credit in your
    documentation and that you not release the source under another license,
    especially GPL. Much or most of the code in Crypto++, in fact, comes
    from SSLeay. The downside of SSLeay is that it is written in relative
    primitive C and anything sucks in just about everything.

    Unless somebody knows of a package that has escaped my attention, I
    think the acceptable solution is to do yet another free packagin of
    SSLeay. I think the best way to attack the problem is:

    1. Define abstract classes for each class crypto algorithm: Symmetic
    block cipher, asymmetric block cipher, and hash.
    2. Define a set of classes that civilize block transformations into
    buffered transformations and implement "modes"
    3. Implement simple primitive classes for each algorithm
    4. Implement higher level classes to handle things like digital
    signatures.

    The key is to build the thing in layers so you can get at RSA for
    session key exchange without bring into all of digitial signatures and
    x509 certificates.

    Since Eric Young has taken the step of putting his code in the public
    domain unencumbered, I'm planning to do the same. There are two ways I
    can go. I can do it myself and make it available when I'm done, or if
    there is interest, run this as an informal open source project from
    Netfrastructure CVS server.

    Anyone interested?

    --

    Jim Starkey

    Thursday, April 07, 2005

    ibpp - progress

    "You know I always try to keep myself informed of your progress and issues so that I can pick up new needs for IBPP.
    Unfortunately march 2005 has been quite badly exceptional for me (mainly health issues & work overload issues).
    You heard quite nothing from me for some weeks and it will still be the case for 1 or 2 weeks (roughly until around April 20).
    Though I'm back, reading news from this list and considering to complete some old unfinished work in IBPP "soon".
    You should expect a new IBPP "stable" beta late this month or at least early in May (because beginning of May I'll be free from a work-charge and that should give me 10 hours free a week.

    I wanted to tell you that the Blob interface received enhancements some weeks ago (this is checked in the HEAD of IBPP CVS, though I still do not recommend you to depend on the HEAD branch for the time being). You'll find the ability to directly read or write a blob to/from a std::string through the Statement::Get/Set methods, essentially short-circuiting completely the need to use a Blob temporary variable for simple use cases.

    This feature at least is already heavily used in our private builds at TIP Group inside release commercial software. So I expect the beta of this next IBPP iteration will be very short.

    There is also a Row concept, that, I expect, could be used to implement sort of client-side caching of rows when retrieving a dataset. But more on this later.

    And the IBPP::Exception now inherits from std::exception allowing a better integration with standard compliants developments. (Look at the ibpp.h from CVS HEAD if you want to see the structure of this and not take wrong paths in between).

    See you soon here, "

    --
    Olivier Mascia

    Monday, April 04, 2005

    SHA1 is now broken, should FB 2.0 still use it?

    Bug Submitted By: Simon McKenna (hypersi)
    Summary: SHA1 is now broken, should FB 2.0 use it?

    Initial Comment:
    >From README.sha1.txt:

    "New hashing algorithm, selected for firebird 2.0, is
    SHA-1"

    However, some clever Chinese researchers have made
    brute force attack on SHA-1 far more attractive:

    http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0503.html#1

    I'm sure you fine folks already know this, but a
    headsup just in case :)

    peace
    si


    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    >Comment By: Sean Leyne (seanleyne)
    Date: 2005-04-04 12:36

    While the SHA-1 algorithm has been cracked, and a
    algorithm is now available to make the attack more possible.

    The most important aspect of the article is:

    "...On the software side, the main comparable is a 264
    keysearch done by distributed.net that finished in 2002. One
    article put it this way: "Over the course of the competition,
    some 331,252 users participated by allowing their unused
    processor cycles to be used for key discovery. After 1,757
    days (4.81 years), a participant in Japan discovered the
    winning key." Moore's Law means that today the calculation
    would have taken one quarter the time -- or have required one
    quarter the number of computers -- so today a 269
    computation would take eight times as long, or require eight
    times the computers."

    This means that it would take **32 years or 2.4 million
    computers** to find a matching SHA-1 hash!

    Further the article continues:

    "For the average Internet user, this news is not a cause for
    panic. No one is going to be breaking digital signatures or
    reading encrypted messages anytime soon. The electronic
    world is no less secure after these announcements than it
    was before."

    Accordingly, there is nothing in the article which will affect
    Firebird security and its use of SHA-1 for the foresable future.

    Finally, there has already been much discussion of a new
    feature to enable a plug-in security architecture which would
    allow for users to implement their own security
    tools/algorithms (SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, or SHA-
    512). The implementation of the new security approach is
    being discussed as a v3.0 feature.

    VulcanJ, a Firebird regression test suite

    We have developed a test suite which we run nightly to verify Vulcan functionality. This test suite, called VulcanJ, has over 800 tests that are a combination of ISQL tests and Java (JDBC) tests. There have been several cases where nightly runs of the test ware uncovered problems that would have been missed otherwise. We also run the tests before committing changes to our internal source code management system. I have now run the test ware against FB2.0, and would like to make it available to the community at large.

    The test ware is based on Junit and Ant. VulcanJ will generate a HTML report which immediately shows where a problem is occurring. In the case of the ISQL tests, the HTML report also shows the comparison between the faulty run and the original benchmark run. Running the tests against FB2.0 generated 2 problems, one of which Pavel has entered a bug track on, and the other, which I posted here this week as a Vulcan problem, also shown up in FB2.0. VulcanJ also includes Java tests that are based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and customized for firebird-specific queries.

    I have sent advance copies of the test ware to Roman and Pavel, and they have encouraged me to push my code to a new CVS module. I hope to push this test ware to a sourceforge next week (at firebird/VulcanJ), but if you want advance review I can send you a zip immediately. Detailed doc and usage instructions are included in the kit. There is a little bit of work left to do, to make sure I remove company-specific references in the source, but then I should be ready to push.

    -b

    Bill Oliver
    Product Specialist, Base SAS

    New version php4-interbase in Debian

    I prepared a new version of php4-interbase. Gregorz, are you in a
    position to sponsor an upload?

    People on pkg-firebird-general might want to rush in
    for the fun early to help testing.

    Here is the changelog.

    * New upstream release
    * Acknowledging NMU. (Closes: #294000)
    * Bump php4-dev build-dep to (4:4.3.10-10) to ensure
    building without zts
    * Remove the -zts phpapi. Urgency high as this
    is release critical.(Closes: #301329)
    * Updated copyright file to incorporate newer
    version of the license
    * Incorporated Czech translation (Closes: #274066)

    The packages can be found here:

    http://www.cd-uitleen.nl/debian/

    Cheers,
    Remco

    Sunday, April 03, 2005

    FIBS 1.0.1 Firebird-Interbase Backup Scheduler

    FIBS is a lightweight, solid and fast scheduler so as to meet most backup-tasks-needs. It uses firebird/interbase command line tool "gbak.exe" to backup safetly and mirrors it to any other disc or computer for extra protection against backup-disc crash. FIBS can create PKZip compatible compressed backup files, if user wants to. One of the noticable feature of FIBS is that it has multi-threaded architecture. Every backup process (including zipping) is executed in a separate thread. That is, there is no serialisation of backup process including zipping. Surely this means that high grade concurrency has been given to users to make them free to set lots of backup tasks just the same time.
    It's been solved some potential scheduling problem with version 1.0.1.
    [ED is free as in free beer :postcardware
    Scroll down to awards]

    I submitted FIBS and TC Converter to a dozen of download sites in March 2005. They have awarded these ratings.

    New Backup in 3 sentences

    Leyne, Sean on firebird-support

    "Additionally, v2.0 includes a new backup tool (currently named NBackup)
    which will allow you to:

    - take a direct OS copy of a live/online database

    - make an image copy of a live/online database

    - create incremental database backups"

    Debian:Request an adopter for the php4-interbase package

    Remco Seesink wrote 

    "I sent an RFA (request for adoption). In Debian terms that means I don't
    have enought time available to do proper maintaining, but haven't given
    up on the package yet (which would be orphaning). This is important
    because holding on to a package while not maintaining it proper will
    hurt users. But I still want to see this package make it into sarge in
    good shape and I will do my best for that.

    This means that a anyone is now free to take over maintainership of the
    package. If you are not a Debian Developer it could be done through
    finding a sponsor who is a Debian Developer and can check your package.
    That is how I do it."

    Friday, April 01, 2005

    (re)port Firebird to OpenVMS ? - not a joke ;)

    Nigel Weeks wrote:
    > Just wondering how hard it would be to (re)port Firebird to OpenVMS on
    > Alpha(not VAX)?
    > We've got three twin-processor AlphaServer's, each with 1GB of ram, doing
    > nothing.
    > Anyone got ideas on which compilers are still freely available?
    >
    > Please tell me if it's a complete waste of time, as they'd make great beer
    > fridges! ;-)

    I'd look into beer. The VMS port hasn't compiled for a decade, I
    suspect. Immediately after Firebird started a couple of groups tried to
    build it, got discouraged, and quit.

    Regards,


    Ann
    [Ed that was responded on firebird-support]

    new version of flamerobin

    Just for 1April :)
    http://www.flamerobin.org

    MyFireGreSql 1.0 - united open source databases

    Today a new project is announced that many oss developers had been awaiting
    MyFireGreSql 1.0 will be the new base code for mysql 6.0 ,firebird 3.0,postgresql 9.0
    We needed a big shake up in open source database world and working on the common code base have it's
    advantages:Firebird and Postresql could borrow from mysql's speed , mysql can use MVCC for it's
    transactions engine from postgresql or firebird's one .
    SQL2003 will be implemented in all three engines now that is published as standard .So why working on a three SQL2003 implementations when we could work only on one? , The project's model is linux kernel where vendors are using only one source code for their distributions (patched properly) but there is only one organization for working on the kernel osdl.

    Thursday, March 31, 2005

    FireRuby 0.2.1

    Announcing the release of version 0.2.1 of the FireRuby library. FireRuby is
    a Ruby language extension that interfaces to the Firebird open source RDBMS.
    No new functionality has been added for this release but a number of bug
    fixes have been made. Please consult the README file for a list of the
    changes.

    The FireRuby project is currently hosted on the Ruby Forge site and can be
    accessed at...

    http://rubyforge.org/projects/fireruby/

    [Ed saw it on gmane.comp.lang.ruby.general]

    Monday, March 28, 2005

    TECT Softwares Stored Procedure Generator (SPGen)

    TECT Softwares Stored Procedure Generator (SPGen)
    has been designed to create standard procedures for most tables.

    Currently SPGen makes no modifications to any database, instead it
    creates a script which you can execute against your database.

    Pricing:

    SPGen is currently in beta and each build is time limited (it will expire after a specified period of time), cost for this product is yet to be determined, however like all our products we will offer the following discounts to Firebird Foundation members, when the product is released:

    * Voting Membership - 100% discount.
    * Associate Membership - 75% discount.

    Beta Test Participation

    Beta participation is open to everyone, to get involved simply download a copy of SPGen, all bug reports or feature requests can be submitted directly using our online helpdesk or join our mail list at Yahoo.

    Saturday, March 26, 2005

    Firebird 2.0 alpha 01 corrupting a db

    Pavel Cisar wrote on devel:
    It seems that first db corruption bug in FB 2.0 was found. This one is really interesting as it seems that the db header page is somehow assigned to table pagespace.

    [ED:is better to wait the firebird 2.0 alpha 02 with fix included]

    "From: (Andy Colson)
    Newsgroups: sourceforge.firebird-test

    Hi all.

    I have installed fb2 (as a service) on my windows 2000 pc (amd xp 1400,
    512k ram).

    I have a reproducable method of corrupting a db, and I get the following
    message:

    Message: database file appears corrupt ()
    wrong page type
    page 0 is of wrong type (expected 5, found 1)

    However... setting up to corrupt the db is easy on my pc, but I dont
    know if I can setup my full app on one of the developers pc's. I can
    get you the database, before and after, if it would help (its about 16
    meg uncompressed).

    With a little work I might be able to pull out the code and make a small
    app that recreates the problem... but I cant be sure.

    So, I'm wondering... Whats the best way for me to help you?

    In general, here is the process:

    I have a createdb app that fires off a "create database" call. Then it
    uses gfix to disable forced writes... (humm.. I'll try the process using
    forced writes to see if it makes a difference).

    Then it uses isql to fire off 3 sql scripts.
    Then it runs ImportPricing (which dynamicly generates many tables based
    on the structure of some paradox tables)
    Then it runs 14 more sql scripts via isql.

    This process seems to work, after ward I can backup the database just fine.

    In our main application we have a batch process that seems to hose the
    tables though. during the process I get the above error. As well, I
    can no longer backup the database (I get the same error)."

    lazarus - firebird components progress

    Jose A. Rimon wrote on lazarus list:
    Attached you will find a patch which provide reading blob fields for sqldb
    (ibconnection) and fix some small bugs.

    Patch tested against Firebird, DB employee. Here are examples of query fixed :

    # Prevents "field not found" error, when use a query without the primary key
    in the select:
    " select aged from sales" raise "Field not found "PO_NUMBER" (primary key)

    # Set SQLlen of different data types:
    "select discount from sales" return 0 for all rows

    # Use AliasName instead of SQLname to avoid "duplicate field name" error, for
    example when using "coalesce" more than once:
    "select coalesce(po_number, 0) as po_number
    ,coalesce(cust_no,0) as cust_no from sales" raise "duplicate field name"

    # use SQLScale in ftLargeInt to get actual values:
    " select aged from sales" return actual value * 10 ^9

    # Send query to server with different lines. Provides line info in sqlErrors
    and allows single line comments
    "select coalesce(po_number, 0) as po_number -- PO_NUMBER
    ,coalesce(cust_no,0) as cust_no
    from sales" raise "unexpected end of command"


    There is a patch also for dbgribs to avoid display the blob field

    [ED: the rest of the thread is here

    Also it seems there are other patches floating around]

    Thursday, March 24, 2005

    FlameRobin Unofficial 0.2.4 binaries are out

    24.03.2005 -Just like previous releases, packages contain only the binaries and
    needed files. No ReadMEs, Installers, Release Notes, Manual, etc. This
    is for those who wish to taste the current CVS version without
    having to compile everything.
    Features:
    -a lot of fixes and enhancement of SQL Editor
    -many new configuration options (most even work :)
    -logging to files works
    Known bugs:
    - if SELECT statement does not fetch all rows, and you press "Show plan", the error message pops-up. It it (seems) harmless, so you can keep working.
    Download: http://www.flamerobin.org/test/0.2.4/

    Firebird 2.00 Alpha on osnews

    This alpha release contains a large number of new features, including derived tables ...
    http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=10067

    Tuesday, March 22, 2005

    Firebird 2.00 Alpha 01

    Firebird 2.00 Alpha 01


    21 March 2005


    The Firebird Project is pleased to announce the release today of the first Firebird 2.0 public Alpha kits for immediate download and testing.


    1. This version of Firebird 2 is an alpha version, meant for field testing only and not for use in production.
    2. All changes and new features are subject to further change and/or
      withdrawal in subsequent alpha and beta releases, leading up to final
      release. Do not assume that databases created by or upgraded to the on-disk
      structure of this alpha will be upwardly compatible with subsequent test
      builds/releases.

    3. Bugs, problems, etc. can be posted to the Field Test bug tracker or
      to the Firebird Development List.


    This release contains a large number of new features, including
    derived tables, support for Execute Block, increased table sizes,
    new improved index code (the 252-byte index length limit is no longer
    applicable), expression indices, numerous optimiser improvements,
    enhanced security features, support for on-line incremental backups
    along with numerous other improvements and bug fixes. Please read
    the Release Notes for more details.



    The following builds are currently available, with others to follow soon:

    Win32



    Linux i686



    Feedback, input and comments re this release will be appreciated, as they will help to speed up the cycle for the full Firebird 2.0 release.



    Happy testing!


    -- Firebird Project

    Monday, March 21, 2005

    Praise for Firebird Relational Database


    >From: WebHub Technical Support
    >Subject: [WebHub-list] off-topic: praise for Firebird Relational Database
    >
    >"Interbase Deleted, Firebird Installed... Existing Apps Work without Effort"
    >
    >This is one of those rare stories where software works perfectly, the way
    >it should. It's possibly relevant to people on this list so I'll give you
    >some details.
    >
    >I started with a machine running WinNT 4, Interbase (June 2000), 1 WH app
    >using a .gdb, 1 other Delphi app using a .gdb. (all on same machine)
    >
    >I backed up the server. You would have too, if you knew what was planned.
    >
    >I shut down the apps. I stopped IIS.
    >
    >I tried to uninstall Interbase but the uninstaller failed, so I stopped
    >Interbase in Control Panel > Services, then deleted c:\Program
    >Files\Borland\Interbase\*.*.
    >
    >I found the Firebird 1.5 stable installer here:
    >http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&page=ibp_download_15 ,
    >specifically
    >
    > 25th Dec 2004
    > Official
    > Windows Setup and Installer For Classic and SuperServer V1.5.2 (.exe) (2.7mb)
    > which leads to
    >
    >http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/firebird/Firebird-1.5.2.4731-Win32.exe
    >
    >I ran the installer. Of course I forgot whether I was supposed to choose
    >Classic or SuperServer. I found this page
    >http://www.firebirdsql.org/manual/qsg15-classic-or-super.html and decided
    >on Superserver. NOTE SUPERSERVER IS THE DEFAULT RADIO BUTTON CHOICE. I
    >find it easy to remember "use the defaults" ... hint.
    >
    >I used all the defaults for installation, aside from the folder location
    >(used d: ... not c: ...).
    >
    >The install finished with no errors. I checked Services and Firebird was
    >running. So far so good.
    >
    >I tested the WH app, it worked, no complaints. (Thanks to the TurboPress
    >developers for that part.)
    >
    >I rebooted the machine, it restarted everything including the WebHub App
    >and the Delphi app, and BOTH WORKED without any reconfiguration of any sort.
    >
    >I was so pleased I had to tell you. Best of luck to anyone who tries this
    >at home.
    >
    >Cheers,
    >Ann
    >

    Saturday, March 19, 2005

    Firebird-developers and Google tools

    Roman Rokytskyy wrote on devel lists

    "This can be of interest for us [ED:firebird developers and others]

    http://code.google.com/projects.html

    CoreDumper

    The coredumper library can be compiled into applications to create core dumps of the running program, without termination. It supports both single- and multi-threaded core dumps, even if the kernel doesn't natively support for multi-threaded core files.
    Discuss this project - Send us feedback


    Sparse Hashtable

    This project contains several hash-map implementations in use at Google, similar in API to SGI's hash_map class, but with different performance characteristics, including an implementation that optimizes for space and one that optimizes for speed.
    Discuss this project - Send us feedback


    Goopy/Functional

    Goopy Functional is a python library that brings functional programming aspects to python.
    Discuss this project - Send us feedback


    Perftools

    These tools are for use by developers so that they can create more robust applications. Especially of use to those developing multi-threaded applications in C++ with templates. Includes TCMalloc, heap-checker, heap-profiler and cpu-profiler."

    Friday, March 18, 2005

    Firebird Embedded on Windows CE/Mobile ?

    question on devel lists:

    "Is there plan of a Firebird Embedded on Windows CE/Mobile, or did some tests have been processed with current version of sources files?

    If not, here is just my opinion: actually, there's only 3 serious solutions of database for windows ce: Pocket access (will be deprecated for future version of W.CE), Oracle PDA (impossible to install it) and SQL Server CE (welcome back to stone aged of database programming: no views, no SP, no triggers, no UDF, no domain)

    so i think there a place to get for firebird embedded on PDA."
    and one of responses

    "Check this out:
    http://firebird-ce.tigris.org/"

    Thursday, March 17, 2005

    Firebird 2 alpha release notes NEW LINK

    I hope some of the international language test group coordinators are watching this and can update their links to the Alpha release notes. The link is now

    http://xrl.us/fgnj

    In case anyone reading this is on the translator team for release notes, please contact me if you are ready to receive the source.

    regards
    Helen

    Monday, March 14, 2005

    Minor corrections in README.user.embedded

    This is for Firebird 2.0 Alpha

    Client access can be only via the local protocol,
    i.e. NOT a TCP/IP connection string that includes
    the server name "localhost" or IP address 127.0.0.1.


    The embedded server supports only the local connect
    to a database file path without a server name. The
    client program gets an exclusive access to the
    database file after successful connect.


    The embedded server acts as a true local server for a single
    client accessing databases on a local machine. It can also
    act as a remote gateway that redirects all network calls to
    other hosts, just as the regular client library
    does.


    Corrected by
    Dmitry Yemanov

    Thursday, March 10, 2005

    Fulltext Search for Firebird SQL (CodeProject Article)

    Fulltext Search for Firebird SQL article on Code Project
    (spoted on dotnetfirebird.org)
    "In this article, we will talk about searching the data in a Firebird database using DotLucene full-text search engine. We will focus on storing the index directly in the database"
    http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/FulltextFirebird.asp

    Monday, March 07, 2005

    Hibernate and Firebird tutorial

    small article


    for jaybird's Wiki about configuring and using Hibernate with Firebird and JayBird


    You can find it at


    http://www.cstengel.de/tutorial/trails_firebird_tutorial/


    work done by Christian Stengel

    Sunday, March 06, 2005

    EMS releases InterBase/FireBird Manager 3.9

    EMS releases InterBase/FireBird Manager 3.9
    Programmers Heaven.com - Malmo,Sweden
    ... InterBase and FireBird administration and development tool. It provides an easy-to-use graphical interface for maintaining databases and database objects ...

    Friday, March 04, 2005

    --- Firebird 2.0 Call for testers letter v1.1 ---


    The Firebird Project will soon be releasing the first public "alpha"
    release of Firebird 2.0. Version 2.0 is a long-awaited important major
    release of Firebird with many new features, enhancements and
    bugfixes (see alpha Release Notes
    for details). In number of changes, the jump in this release is equivalent
    if not greater than the transition from version 1.0 to version 1.5.

    You know that we care about quality, and that we will not release the
    final version 2.0 until it meets our strict QA requirements. For version
    1.5, it took about a year before we were satisfied. But this time we are
    in a slightly different situation.

    The Vulcan project reached the *general usability milestone*, with only
    a few loose ends left, and we would like to merge both codebases as
    soon as possible. This merge should result in Firebird 3.0 with full
    SMP support, unified architecture (no more separate
    classic/superserver/embedded builds) and other enhancements (see
    http://www.ibphoenix.com/downloads/VulcanOverview.pdf for details).
    Beside clear benefits for Firebird users, this merge will result in
    cleaner and concise architecture and codebase, and will complete our
    transition from old procedural C code to fully OOP C++ code. This will
    open gates for developers to design and implement more complex features
    like namespaces, temporary tables and other much requested features.

    But we can't fully focus on the Firebird/Vulcan merge before the final
    Firebird 2.0 is released, hence we would like to shorten the QA phase
    as much as possible, but without compromising our strict quality
    requirements for final release. We *can* do that by making our QA
    process more effective. The effectiveness of the Firebird QA process
    heavily depends on feedback from end users, so it's natural for our
    quest for more effective QA to start with it.

    So far, user feedback was random and fully in the hands of end users.
    Basically, we would release a build, wait for feedback for some time
    and solve the reported issues (along with other issues we did find
    internally over that period). If no important issues were
    found/reported since the last Release Candidate build, that build was
    repackaged as final. Of course, there are also alpha and beta stages
    that follow this pattern too, but differ in what developers are
    allowed to change in the ncode.

    While this routine has worked nicely for us in the past, it has an
    important drawback: We don't know how much the build is tested in
    field, in both scale and functionality coverage. We can only guess
    approximate figures based on download count, direct feedback, hearsay,
    development stage etc. to estimate the "quality index". We also have
    only one gauge to work with: time, hence the long release cycle.

    To improve on that, we would like to initiate a managed field-tests
    program, starting from Firebird 2.0. This managed field-test *will
    not* replace the *usual* field-test scenario (or internal testing),
    but should work as a complement to other QA routines we use. The
    objective of managed field-test is to collect precise information
    about field-test (i.e. how the released build was tested and with what
    outcome), so we can better estimate the outcome of the QA process,
    focus on open gaps in QA and thus allocate our QA resources more
    precisely, so eventually we would build our trust in quality of code
    more quickly.

    The participation in managed field-test is very simple. You need to
    sign-in by e-mail to pcisar , where you'll describe
    how you would like to test our releases. We prefer any testing method
    that is close to real use. This means that if you have an application
    that runs with Firebird, you can simply take it on a "test drive" with
    the new Firebird release in some testing environment, preferably with
    real-world data. Of course, you can pick up any testing method you
    like, and you can even focus only on a particular area you're most
    interested in (for example performance, backup/restore, new features,
    optimizer etc.). You must also describe what Firebird flavour(s)
    (CS/SS/Embedded) and platform(s) you want to test. We will send you a
    notification whenever a new filed-test build is available, and we will
    expect a report from you about the outcome (either good or bad) of
    your tests.

    We know that such commitment may not be easy to fulfil, so it's
    possible that you may skip testing of the field-test release or leave
    the program altogether at any point, so we will reward those who help
    us! We have created a "prize pool" that right now contains a Firebird
    T/polo-shirt in color and shape of your choice from IBPhoenix, but we
    believe that we'll get more prizes into this pool before Firebird 2.0
    final release. At the end of the release cycle, we will reward the
    most "active" tester(s) and one randomly selected tester.

    The managed field-test program is open to anyone, at any time point in
    the release cycle (starting from fist alpha till last RC), but those who
    sign-in early will have better chance to get a reward for their help.


    Pavel Cisar
    Firebird Project QA Division

    Tuesday, March 01, 2005

    Firebird Essencial is the week's best seller at the online book store

    seen it on ibphoenix site

    "Firebird Essencial
    is the week's best seller at the online book store TempoReal, both again in Portuguese. Wryly, I think I see a pattern here..."

    Book details and look at right Top 10 most wanted books (this week)

    http://www.temporeal.com.br/produtos.php?id=168947

    IBPhoenix got competition

    Single Source Support For Top Leading Open Source RDMBS - MySQL, Firebird SQL and PostgreSQL.

    (PRLEAP.COM) Cambridge, MA Feburary 16, 2005 - Advent Consulting - a leading open source technology consulting firm today announced enhanced managed support program for MySQL, Firebird SQL and PostgreSQL.

    "We recognize the value that the Open Source database community brings." Said David Lee, CEO of Advent Consulting. "With the strength of MySQL, Firebird SQL and PostgreSQL database deployments in the enterprise and of the greater open source movement as a whole, Advent Consulting is addressing the growing demand for open source database supports with a single source, traditional proprietary methods of escalating professional support services for all three leading open source database."

    "Our goal is to provide the best out of open source database solutions to our clients with greater confidence. With this program, the database administrator (DBA) and developer can easily and productively escalating support for their open source (RDBMS) on MySQL, Firebird SQL and PostgreSQL from one convenient source." said Mr. Lee.

    Subscriptions plan will be available for a range of required service levels - from basic system updates with automatic escalation procedures, to 24/7 live production support with remote administration on both Linux and Windows environments.

    Other open source database services includes: database migration, custom development, database optimization and tuning.

    Advent Consulting has been a Firebird SQL foundation member and sponsor, MySQL devconnect consulting partner, as well with extensive successful experience with PostgreSQL consulting & implementation.

    About Advent Consulting

    Advent Consulting is an independent, open-source strategy consulting firm that provides best-of-breed, totally integrated open source and Linux solutions for delivering cost savings, stability and performance required for companies embracing open source technology.

    The professionals at Advent Consulting provide a range of services and supports necessary for organizations to leverage the benefits of open source software including consulting, research, migration, integration, customized development and support.

    To learn more about Advent Consulting’s focus, philosophy and open source solution offerings, visit http://www.adventconsultants.com
    ###

    OPEN SOURCE DATABASE SOFTWARE COMPARISON

    This is a comparison between free open-source database software solutions actually avalaible. I want to thanks all the sofware developers for developing such a great software for the open source community.


    MySQL

    PostgreSQL

    MaxDB

    Firebird

    Ingres
    Version

    Mysql-4.1.x

    PostgreSQL 8.x

    MaxDB Version 7.5

    Firebird 1.5.x (Roadmap)

    Ingres R3

    Read more

    Firebird second in Brazil (Oracle10g is 1rst)

    Info OnLine, a leading IT magazine in Brazil found Firebird the second (translated from Portuguese) most popular database after Oracle

    update :
    claudio translated this article
    The Argentinian site is saying:

    The Brasilian Magazine INFO's readers chose the winner of innovation with
    the prize INFO 2004. (The link is http://info.abril.com.br/premioinfo/2004/
    but really Oracle v/s Firebird is mentioned here
    under "banco de dados"). How does it come that you don't understand
    Portuguese, Marius?
    :-)

    I think Carlos Cantu or Artur Anjos are going to punish me for the bad
    translation from Portuguese (cuz I'm converting from two languages that
    aren't native to my rusty chips), but anyway:

    banco de dados -> database
    In a market estimated by IDC in 13.5 billion dollars and disputed byte per
    byte, Oracle 10g shines due to an innovative proposal: to take advantage of
    typical machines (they meant they aren't expensive servers) in companies,
    making up clusters to process information. Oracle 10g received 78% of the
    preferences. The preferred products at the right are:
    - Oracle 10g from Oracle (of course).
    - Firebird from FirebirdSQL Foundation.
    (I really don't care if the owner is perceived as FF or FB Project, but
    clearly it's better than other sites I've seen that attribute FB to IBP.)

    Going back to the original site in Spanish, it continues:

    It's interesting to note that in the SW Category, regarding DBs, FB got the
    second place, only behind Oracle. (Personal note: I think Larry is going to
    pay attention some day.) Also it showed without doubt that's capable for the
    task/job. This also confirms Brazil as one of the main Firebird users in the
    world after Russia. (The site uses the "free database" term instead of FB to
    emphasize the nature of our product.)

    Firebird also has Fyracle (http://www.fyracle.org/), a patch doing each time
    a better job to offer a compatibility mode with Oracle syntax.

    End of Argentinian article.
    Claudio Valerama

    SQL# For GTK# 0.2 released

    take a look at screenshot (looks familiar ?)

    http://xrl.us/fams (Link to ftp.novell.com)

    the rest of article

    http://xrl.us/famu (Link to www.mfconsulting.com)