 | Programming the Perl DBI |  |
The DBI has been strongly influenced by ODBC and the international standards that lie behind it (X/Open SQL CLI and ISO/IEC 9075-3:1995 SQL/CLI). The development of the DBD::ODBC module has given the DBI a more solid footing in the world of ODBC.
The DBI specification naturally evolves over time. The ODBC standard gives it a standards-based framework to build around. So, for example, if a method to return information about the datatypes supported by a database needs to be added, then following the proven standard function that makes much more sense than defining a new way. Thus, the DBI type_info method is modeled very closely on the GetTypeInfo ODBC function.
As the DBI and DBD::ODBC modules evolve, they'll naturally move closer together. As there are two excellent portable Open Source driver managers available,[66] the DBD::ODBC module should become as portable as DBI itself. At that point, it may well make sense to combine the two.
[66]It's available from the FreeODBC project at: http://users.ids.net/~bjepson/FreeODBC/.
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| 7.4. ODBC from Perl |  | 7.6. Questions and Choices |
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