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Using ODBC in Jaguar?
dmayle asks: "I've decided to do some Mac-based database development, and, since Apple was kind enough to include ODBC Administrator, I decided to use that as a starting point. The only problem is, there doesn't seem to be ANY documentation anywhere about it. I know that PostgreSQL for Mac includes an ODBC driver, but again, I can's seem to find out any docs on how to use it... Are there any developers using this tool out there, and where did you learn how to do it?"
While it's true that MS was a huge proponent of ODBC and had a major hand in implementing it, ODBC is probably one of the only things that they probably helped do right and didnt get their grubby hands in to restrict and control. For more of the history of ODBC, why it's cool, and how it relates to things today, a good read is the chapter on ODBC in the O'Reily Perl DBI book. Much of the perl DBI is drawn and made possible by the existence of ODBC. Incedentally, ODBC MS has twice tried to supplant ODBC in its OS's with OLEDB and some newer ActiveX crap, but ODBC continues to hang on due to it's wide support and general standard implementation.
Sorry I don't have any more about ODBC for OS/X, but since it's unix-like, it's got a 95% chance of being UNIXODBC or iODBC. It's also undoubtadely documented on apple's developer site, which is probably why you can't find any documentation anywhere else.
ODBC Jaguar
Actually, use OLEDB where possible on a Microsoft platform. It includes speed and stability and feature advances over ODBC!
The person to ask about this is Marc Lilback; he wrote the ODBC stuff for OS X; his web site at www.lilback.com has drivers, sample code, and ports, but I believe he charges for this. Mac SQL databases are his livelihood.