*************************************
                    *                                   *
                    *          DB/C Newsletter          *
                    *            March 2004             *
                    *                                   *
                    *************************************


                              News and Comments

     Message volume on the dbctalk email list continues to grow.  Most
importantly, the information-to-noise ratio is very high.  In the first
10 weeks of 2004, there were about 175 emails discussing 35 different
topics.  There are currently 160 people subscribed to dbctalk.  If you are
not one of them, you should consider subscribing to dbctalk because it is
a great resource for information about DB/C DX and DB/C FS.  Don't be afraid
of getting junk email - the subscription process stops that from happening.
You can find out more information and how to subscribe at:

     http://www.dbcsoftware.com/dbctalk.html

     DB/C FS 3.2 was released this month.  It is an evolutionary release
that contains a couple of new features that may be of importance to you.
This month's article describes what's new in DB/C FS 3.2.

                                                     don.wills@dbcsoftware.com

******************************************************************************

                                DB/C FS 3.2

     There are two major new features in DB/C FS 3.2, along with several
other features and bug fixes.

     The first major new feature is support for UNIX ODBC client software.
This feature allows UNIX applications to have SQL-oriented access to data
managed by a DB/C FS server.  This feature is now feasible because of the
availability of an open source implementation of ODBC for UNIX and LINUX.
This software, known as unixODBC, is available at:

     http://www.unixodbc.org

The DB/C FS UNIX ODBC driver consists of three files:
  
     setupodb    the DB/C FS UNIX ODBC driver installer
     fs3odbc.a   the UNIX ODBC driver shared library
     fs3odbcu.a  the UNIX ODBC driver setup shared library

These files are available for most versions of UNIX, including AIX, HPUX,
LINUX, MAC OS X and others.  There are a few UNIX software packages available
now that use unixODBC - more should become available in the near future.

     The second major new feature is support for file I/O access for client
software written for .NET.  That is, programs written in C#, J# and VB.NET
can access files managed by DB/C FS using traditional record access with
ISAM and AIM support.  This feature is supplied in one file:

     fs.dll      the .NET class library assembly file

This feature is implemented with class and method names that are essentially
the same as the class and method names in the Java class library for file
I/O that has been part of DB/C FS since release 2.1.  The only major
difference between the Java and .NET class libraries is that SSL encryption
of the wire communication is available only with the Java class library.

     Here is a list of other new features:

. A default password can be specified in the control panel, so that if an
  application does not provide a password during connection, the specified
  password will be used (e.g. Microsoft Access works this way).

. The Windows ODBC driver installer, setupodb.exe, has been upgraded to the
  latest version of InstallShield.  One benefit is that silent installs are
  now possible.

. Three new server logging options are available:  logopenclose, logtimestamp
  and logusername.

. Support was added to the JDBC driver for DatabaseMetaData.getPrimaryKeys().

. Support was added to the JDBC driver for escape clause specification of
  time, date and timestamp data values.

. The INTO keyword is now optional in the SQL INSERT statement.

    With the new features of DB/C FS 3.2, there are now programming interfaces
for both SQL and file-oriented access for all major platforms.  You should
now be able to access your DB/C FS managed data regardless of your choice of
programming language or operating system.


******************************************************************************

                          DB/C DX Class Schedule

   Class:     DB/C DX Fundamentals
   Date:      June, 2004
   Location:  Oak Brook, Illinois

For information, send email to admin@dbcsoftware.com.


******************************************************************************
 
                    Subscribing to the DB/C Newsletter

     If you don't already have the DB/C Newsletter delivered to your email
address and would like to have it emailed to you monthly, just send an
email message to 'dbcnews-subscribe@dbcsoftware.com'.  The newsletter will
be delivered to the email address from which the message was sent.