1.1 Introduction

1.1.1 Implementation

The SQL-ODBC library is built on top of a generic SQL library. This SQL library does not include the low-level code necessary to communicate with any particular DBMS. In itself, the SQL library simply provides a convenient high-level mechanism for integrating database operations into Dylan applications. It is designed to form the high-level part of "implementation libraries" that contain lower-level code to supporting a particular DBMS protocol, such as ODBC. The SQL-ODBC library is, then, one such implementation library.

Our intention is that the SQL library will provide a common high-level Dylan interface to any DBMS. Applications written using the SQL-ODBC library will therefore be simple to port to any future DBMSes for which implementation libraries are written.