A beta software developer’s kit for version 2.0 of Microsoft Corp’s Open Database Connectivity interface will go on general release this month, PC Week reports, with the final release scheduled for April. ODBC 2.0 supports 32-bit applications, scrollable cursors for navigating through data, and navigational extensions for accessing non-relational data, but apart from that the update from version 1.0 is fairly minor, according to several beta testers. It does provide several new tools to help developers write bug-free Open Data Base Connectivity drivers, however. ODBC Test is a testing tool specifically revised for testing version 2.0 drivers, while ODBC Spy keeps a log of all the calls a driver makes, so they can be used in further tests. Microsoft also says it intends to establish an ODBC driver-certification process, and is working on a test suite to ensure that applications that pass the tests have plug and play interoperability with all other certified applications. Furthermore, PC Week says Microsoft wants to move some of the system overhead associated with ODBC driver access from the desktop to the server. Although it has no specific plans to develop a product itself, it is talking to third-party vendors about doing so. In the longer term, the firm also intends to build a Unified Engine. This will be based on its Jet database engine, and support ODBC and other Microsoft application programming interfaces. A client-server version of the Unified Engine will support object-oriented technology, Object Linking & Embedding, and the ability to do distributed database joins that include data from rela tional and non- relational dat abase sources.
