Description:
This book contains much of the information you need in order to develop Windows applications with lots of snazzy database-related features. North explains far more than ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), detailing dozens of Windows technologies that you can use to communicate with Database Management Systems (DBMSs) of various kinds. Opening with a discussion of how programmers can structure databases and their interfaces in Windows, Windows Multi-DBMS Programming goes on to explain general database concepts, such as table structure and optimization. Then, the book delves into SQL (structured query language) and some of its many implementations, including Watcom SQL, Quadbase-SQL, Microrim R:BASE and R:BASE SQL, Raima, Gupta, and others. Windows Multi-DBMS Programming then highlights ODBC 2.0, the most popular SQL tool under Windows. Subsequently, the book details QELib, Access, FoxPro, and goes into some detail on programming databases under Visual Basic and C++. There's even some attention paid to writing database applications for palmtop computers. As you might expect, a book that covers so much data sacrifices depth for breadth. The tradeoff is worthwhile, considering how few other resources give attention to some of the tools this reference covers. Once you develop a general plan for solving your problem, you can look into more specific tutorials and API (application programming interface) references. To the book's detriment, all the examples are done in Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.5x, even though this book came out in 1995. Much of the material will transfer to newer operating environments, but an update is badly needed. Furthermore, the author sometimes lapses into oversimplicity, providing glossary-like definitions of basic terms such as "SDK" (software developer's kit). Though these lapses sometimes grow annoying, it's better that the book errs on the side of simplicity rather than on the side of complexity.
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