   ===========================================================================
       DBD::DtfSQLmac Version 0.3201 for MacPerl 5.2.0r4 and MacPerl 5.6.1
   ===========================================================================
   


Saturday, April 06, 2002

"Spring has arrived over here, the daffodils are out and it's gorgeous."

                                                            [Alan Fry]



Dear MacPerl Users,

this is the DBD::DtfSQLmac 0.3201 module with shared PPC libraries compiled for 
MacPerl 5.2.0r4 (5.004) and MacPerl 5.6.1 or higher. The shared libraries provided 
will only run on PowerPC Macs and with the PPC or Fat versions of MacPerl. It was 
compiled with MPW's MrC (PPC). Please let me know of any problems you might 
encounter.

You can download the module and the readme from my CPAN directory

    $CPAN/authors/id/T/TW/TWEGNER/ .



*NAME
======

DBD::DtfSQLmac - A DBI driver for the dtF/SQL 2.01 database engine, Macintosh edition


*REQUIRES for MacPerl 5.2.0r4
=============================

  MacPerl 5.2.0r4 (5.004) 
  DBI 1.08 (Mac build for MacPerl 5.2.0r4)
  Mac::DtfSQL 0.3201 (part of the distribution)
  

*REQUIRES for MacPerl 5.6.1 (and higher)
=========================================

  MacPerl >= 5.6.1
  DBI >= 1.08 (Mac build for MacPerl 5.6.1)
  Mac::DtfSQL 0.3201 (part of the distribution)


*DESCRIPTION
=============

DBD::DtfSQLmac is a DBI driver for the dtF/SQL 2.01 database engine, Macintosh edition. 
dtF/SQL is a relational database engine for MacOS, Windows 95/NT, and several Unix 
platforms from sLAB Banzhaf & Soltau oHG (http://www.slab.de/), Boeblingen, Germany. The 
dtF/SQL database engine implements an impressive set of ANSI SQL-92 functionality. It is 
designed as an embedded database for product developers. Best of all, it's free for 
non-commercial use. 

The state of free (or nearly free) relational databases on the Macintosh running classic
Mac OS isn't great, thus dtF/SQL is a remarkable exception. Because of the lack of free 
relational databases, the number of Perl DBD drivers usable for the Macintosh is limited. 
This module should help to alleviate the situation, as it is one of the very few useable 
DBDs for a true database engine on the Mac.

DBD::DtfSQLmac, a pure Perl driver, could not be used stand-alone. It could only be used 
in conjunction with the Mac::DtfSQL module (part of the distribution), which is the Perl 
interface to the dtF/SQL database engine. While the Mac::DtfSQL extension module does all 
the dirty work talking to the dtF/SQL C API, the DBD::DtfSQLmac module offers the 
standard Perl DBI API to relational databases.

This module should run on a PowerPC Macintosh with MacOS 7.x/8.x/9.x right out of the box. 
Unfortunately, users of a 68K Mac are a bit out of luck, because I cannot provide a 
pre-build version of the Mac::DtfSQL extension module for them. One will need a Metrowerks 
Codewarrior compiler and linker to build a version for CFM 68K Macs running MacPerl 5.2.0r4 
(see the Mac::DtfSQL module documentation for more information). However, be aware that 
support for dynamic loading of shared libraries has been dropped for the 68K versions of the 
new MacPerl 5.6.1 (and higher) tool and application. Hence, you will have to link the 
Mac::DtfSQL extension statically into your MacPerl 5.6.1 binary.


*INSTALLATION
==============

See the INSTALL.5004 document for old MacPerl 5.2.0.r4.

See the INSTALL.561 document for new MacPerl 5.6.1 (and higher).


*HOW TO GET dtF/SQL 2.01
=========================

Please note that dtF/SQL 2.01 is freely available only for non-commercial use. See sLAB's 
License Agreement for details.

Downloading dtF/SQL version 2.01 requires registration. Visit sLAB's web site at 
http://www.slab.de/us/home/, go to the download section and register yourself (your name 
and email-address are sufficient). Within a few minutes, you will get a user name and 
password via email. Now, visit their web site again, go straight to the download section, 
choose 'Non-public Download', wait for the file list to come and choose

 dtF/SQL 2.01 for MacOS
 	dtFmac-201.sit	Size: 3395 kByte	Date: 09/14/2000 .
	
Then choose "License agreement for non-commercial users", read and agree to the upcoming 
License Agreement to actually download the file.

There are older versions of dtF/SQL available, and some don't require registration. 
However, this module was written for version 2.01 and will *not* work with older versions 
of dtF/SQL. With the 2.0 release of the dtF/SQL database engine, its API has been revamped.

Within the downloaded package, you will find the shared library (PPC only) needed for this 
module, as well as the static PPC and 68K libraries, the documentation, a tool for 
administrating a dtF/SQL database (PPC only), the dtF/SQL database server (PPC only), 
sample source code (in C and C++) and other useful stuff. Please note that this module is 
useless without the dtF/SQL shared library, as you might guess.


*KNOWN BUGS
============

No known bugs. Please report bugs to the author.


*COPYRIGHT
===========

Copyright (c) 2000-2002 Thomas Wegner.  All rights reserved.  This program is free 
software. You may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic 
License, distributed with Perl.


Have fun.

--
Thomas Wegner

t_wegner@gmx.net,
TWEGNER@cpan.org
