afaik there is very little out there that is truly db agnostic
i have coded in Windoze using ODBC, it's not hard and there are some good books on the subject to help you through. i am not aware of what there is available across Linux platforms that is ODBC like
The key with ODBC is understanding the two-phase process in communicating with your DB. There are in fact two ODBC drivers, the one that extracts the commands required from the langauge you are coding in and t'other actually communicating that command to the DB engine.
i haven't looked at SQLAPI, but ODBC avoids embedded SQL statements and i suspect embedded SQL statements is what you want to go away from.
Your other problem is the features available from each DB may be very different. I has to work across MSSQL and Access and (initially) any other db. This 'any other db' was rapidly restricted to those that fit the SQL standards. (Note DB2 does not)
I can't this minute recall whether SQL92 has been superceded by SQL 97 (or whether i am getting confused between standards in my old age) but it is worth chasing the standards up so that you can identify standard and non-standard features especially in your existing code. Your existing code may not be agnostic
The way your db is treated in your existing code may / may not work for other db's in exactly the same way.
i haven't read the article and i haven't read all the posts generated by this discussion but...
i develop websites, i like developing websites and i will put my hand up and say i have in the past fallen into the 'it works' on IE only trap.
i do use an HTML validator now. i think we should all realise there are a lot of engines out there that don't seem to support the standards properly
For example, my experience is an HTML page won't validate if tag exists without an ALT attribute set. but i have tested sites with browsers other than IE on (yes sorry for this ) the windoze platform
only to find the other browser doesn't display the ALT tag data.
how can i say well try it in Browser X or advertise that a site works cross browsers and platforms when i get that response from a modern browser?
i agree the engine parsed the page ok but i thought the alt attribute is meant to be there visually if the image don't load. none of the alt data was displayed at all. What made this particular case worse was that the browser had different bugs according to different platforms, so not only did i experience a cross browser issue but a cross platform issue too. With the advent of FrontPage unfortunately people aren't prepared to pay for the time invested in ensuring that their web site works cross platform and cross browser and comes up to standard. they see FrontPage output works on IE and they don't care about Opera, Netscape, Lynx or disabled access to their sites; they only see what they have to pay for the work involved. so a web designer/developer can put the effort into standardising a site but that doesn't solve the problems because so few of the browsers are working to the standards. which means that a web developer then has to invest further time and money going cross-platform and cross browser. The returns from web design and development are diminishing because any 'dude' without training can get something resembling a website up using FrontPage and it works on IE.
IE is unfortunately the most popular browser, with over 98% of all browsers visiting sites i have built being IE of different versions.
i have had the constraint of developing to IE4 through to IE6 plus Netscape 4 and seeing why a mass of javascript and java code won't work across a mass of other browsers for a commercial product.
it's a nightmare to keep functionality going when so many browsers either implement in a non-standard manner or only partially implement any of the given standards that can affect a web page.
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afaik there is very little out there that is truly db agnostic
i have coded in Windoze using ODBC, it's not hard and there are some good books on the subject to help you through. i am not aware of what there is available across Linux platforms that is ODBC like
The key with ODBC is understanding the two-phase process in communicating with your DB. There are in fact two ODBC drivers, the one that extracts the commands required from the langauge you are coding in and t'other actually communicating that command to the DB engine.
i haven't looked at SQLAPI, but ODBC avoids embedded SQL statements and i suspect embedded SQL statements is what you want to go away from.
Your other problem is the features available from each DB may be very different. I has to work across MSSQL and Access and (initially) any other db. This 'any other db' was rapidly restricted to those that fit the SQL standards. (Note DB2 does not)
I can't this minute recall whether SQL92 has been superceded by SQL 97 (or whether i am getting confused between standards in my old age) but it is worth chasing the standards up so that you can identify standard and non-standard features especially in your existing code. Your existing code may not be agnostic
The way your db is treated in your existing code may / may not work for other db's in exactly the same way.
Good luck
Agnostic via standards?
HTH
well that's a surprise
...
i haven't read the article and i haven't read all the posts generated by this discussion but
i develop websites, i like developing websites and i will put my hand up and say i have in the past fallen into the 'it works' on IE only trap.
i do use an HTML validator now.
i think we should all realise there are a lot of engines out there that don't seem to support the standards properly
For example, my experience is an HTML page won't validate if tag exists without an ALT attribute set.
but i have tested sites with browsers other than IE on (yes sorry for this ) the windoze platform only to find the other browser doesn't display the ALT tag data.
how can i say well try it in Browser X or advertise that a site works cross browsers and platforms when i get that response from a modern browser?
i agree the engine parsed the page ok but i thought the alt attribute is meant to be there visually if the image don't load.
none of the alt data was displayed at all.
What made this particular case worse was that the browser had different bugs according to different platforms,
so not only did i experience a cross browser issue but a cross platform issue too.
With the advent of FrontPage unfortunately people aren't prepared to pay for the time invested
in ensuring that their web site works cross platform and cross browser and comes up to standard.
they see FrontPage output works on IE and they don't care about Opera, Netscape, Lynx or disabled access to their sites; they only see what they have to pay for the work involved.
so a web designer/developer can put the effort into standardising a site but that doesn't solve the problems
because so few of the browsers are working to the standards. which means that a web developer
then has to invest further time and money going cross-platform and cross browser.
The returns from web design and development are diminishing because any 'dude' without training can get something resembling a website up using FrontPage and it works on IE.
IE is unfortunately the most popular browser, with over 98% of all browsers visiting sites i have built being IE of different versions.
i have had the constraint of developing to IE4 through to IE6 plus Netscape 4 and seeing why a mass of javascript and java code won't work across a mass of other browsers for a commercial product. it's a nightmare to keep functionality going when so many browsers either implement in a non-standard manner or only partially implement any of the given standards that can affect a web page.