Re: ODBC driver for Windows & future...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgsql-odbc-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
> [mailto:pgsql-odbc-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Russ Cobbe
> Sent: 30 November 2004 14:10
> To: pgsql-odbc(at)postgresql(dot)org
> Subject: Re: [ODBC] ODBC driver for Windows & future...
>
> We might be able to help out here. We have written more ODBC
> drivers than any one else (50+). www.opayc.com

You should know what you are doing then! :-)

> What is the status of the project?

The current status is that the project has no primary maintainer, and
just has myself and Peter Eisentraut doing occasional bug fixes and
snapshot releases (also, Scot Loach has contributed recently). I cannot
speak for Peter, but I no longer have any personal interest in ODBC as
my primary project (pgAdmin) is now libpq based, and I'm not exactly an
ODBC expert anyway.

> What needs doing?

Some time back I tried to drum up some new developers, and compiled the
following list:

> 1) ODBC 3 compliance should be checked. Are all the required ODBC
> functions present. Do they work as expected.
>
> 2) Ditto, Unicode versions of all the functions.

1 & 2 were roughly checked by Peter - and with the odd exception,
everything was pretty much there iirc. Check the archives for details.

> 3) An audit of the code for possible buffer overrun problems should
> be undertaken.

Peter provided patches to address various buffer overruns - a further
audit probably wouldn't hurt though.

> 4) An update to the v3 fe-be protocol is required.
>
> 5) SSL support should be added.

The general concencus is that these issues are best resolved by
replacing the current connection code (mainly in connection.c/socket.c)
with libpq. This will of course future-proof much of the driver.

> 6) The GUI needs a cleanup (move to use of tabs rather than separate
> dialogues, and a 'test connection' button?).

I've cleaned up a fair bit of the GUI (though it still currently uses
buttons, not tabs). The test connection button would probably make a
nice project for a new developer to dabble with.

> 7) Documentation and the website needs updating (as always :-) )

In addition, there are a number of bugs/support request logged on the
project site at http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/psqlodbc. I suspect
the majority of these are not necessarily bugs, but configuration/3rd
party software issues - regardless, they should be confirmed and closed
or fixed. This would not necessarily take an expert in the driver
internals, so any ODBC programmer could tackle some of these using their
preferred language.

The only actual bugs that I know of that are outstanding are:

1) Apparently there is a threading bug which can cause a crash on loaded
IIS websites. I have asked, but no-one has yet provided me with a
logfile or backtrace (whether I could actually fix it if they did is
another issue altogether!).

2) There is a bug in the experimental cursor support that causes crashes
from time to time. This option is currently turned off by default.

In addition, the installer needs to be updated to an open source
solution. I will undertake this myself, using Wix (allowing production
of merge modules for use with the pginstaller and other projects).

> We probably wouldn't be able to contribute anything until the
> new year but we can start looking at things now.

Any time you can contribute would be gratefully received :-)

I would also add that the reports of doom and gloom here are a little
exagerated imho. Yes there is a lack of maintainers atm (which is
definitely not good), however, the driver essentially works and is
pretty stable for the majority of users. Most of the work that needs to
be done is on the newer fe/be protocol and SSL, which though highly
desirable, are not totally essential to the future of the planet, given
that PostgreSQL still supports the older protocol.

Regards, Dave

P.S. To the rest of the list, the previous maintainer was Hiroshi Inoue,
not Iroshi :-).