<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >History of FreeTDS</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="FreeTDS User Guide" HREF="index.htm"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="What is FreeTDS?" HREF="what.htm"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="History of TDS Versions" HREF="tdshistory.htm"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Current Projects, Language Bindings, and Alternatives" HREF="projects.htm"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="userguide.css"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" ><SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > User Guide: A Guide to Installing, Configuring, and Running <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN ></TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="tdshistory.htm" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 1. What is <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN >?</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="projects.htm" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="FREETDSHISTORY" >History of <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN ></A ></H1 ><P ><SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > was and is developed by observation and experimentation, which is to say, by trial and error.</P ><P >In early 1997, the only option for connecting to a Sybase server from Linux or other free systems was an aging Sybase-released version of <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >OpenClient</SPAN >. Unfortunately it had a few problems. The original release was <CODE CLASS="SYMBOL" >a.out</CODE >-based, although Greg Thain did a great service in converting the library to ELF. Secondly, it included only the newer <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >CT-Library</SPAN > <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >API</ACRONYM >. The older <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >DB-Library</SPAN > <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >API</ACRONYM > was missing.</P ><P >Brian Bruns, a Sybase DBA and originator of the <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > project, had some <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >DB-Library</SPAN > programs he wanted to run under Linux, and thus began the <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > project. The original work focused on <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >DB-Library</SPAN > and version 5.0 of the protocol, but quickly expanded to include a <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >CT-Library</SPAN > compatible layer and <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >TDS</ACRONYM > version 4.2. Later support for <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >ODBC</SPAN > and <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >TDS 7.0 and 7.1</ACRONYM > was added. Craig Spannring wrote a Java <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >JDBC</ACRONYM > driver which became <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS/JDBC</SPAN >.</P ><P >As the project matured, it gained new participants. Frediano Ziglio greatly expanded the <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >ODBC</SPAN > driver, and continues to improve both it and the underlying TDS library. Bill Thompson wrote most of the present BCP system and added cursors to our <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >CT-Library</SPAN >. Your humble author joined the project to add documentation, and in 2002 became its maintainer. Such are the rewards for doing a good deed.</P ><P >There have been many other contributions. Please see the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >AUTHORS</TT > in the distribution for a (we hope) complete list.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="tdshistory.htm" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.htm" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="projects.htm" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >History of <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >TDS</ACRONYM > Versions</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="what.htm" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Current Projects, Language Bindings, and Alternatives</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >