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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>History of FreeTDS</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="userguide.css" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="FreeTDS User Guide" /><link rel="up" href="what.html" title="Chapter 1. What is FreeTDS?" /><link rel="prev" href="tdshistory.html" title="History of TDS Versions" /><link rel="next" href="projects.html" title="Current Projects, Language Bindings, and Alternatives" /></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">History of <span class="productname">FreeTDS</span></th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tdshistory.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 1. What is <span class="productname">FreeTDS</span>?</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="projects.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="FreeTDShistory"></a>History of <span class="productname">FreeTDS</span></h2></div></div></div><p><span class="productname">FreeTDS</span> was and is developed by observation and experimentation, which is to say, by trial and error.</p><p>In early 1997, the only option for connecting to a Sybase server from Linux or other free systems was an aging Sybase-released version of <span class="productname">OpenClient</span>. Unfortunately it had a few problems. The original release was <span class="symbol">a.out</span>-based, although Greg Thain did a great service in converting the library to ELF. Secondly, it included only the newer <code class="systemitem">CT-Library</code> <acronym class="acronym">API</acronym>. The older <code class="systemitem">DB-Library</code> <acronym class="acronym">API</acronym> was missing.</p><p>Brian Bruns, a Sybase DBA and originator of the <span class="productname">FreeTDS</span> project, had some <code class="systemitem">DB-Library</code> programs he wanted to run under Linux, and thus began the <span class="productname">FreeTDS</span> project. The original work focused on <code class="systemitem">DB-Library</code> and version 5.0 of the protocol, but quickly expanded to include a <code class="systemitem">CT-Library</code> compatible layer and <acronym class="acronym">TDS</acronym> version 4.2. Later support for <code class="systemitem">ODBC</code> and <acronym class="acronym">TDS 7.0 and 7.1</acronym> was added. Craig Spannring wrote a Java <acronym class="acronym">JDBC</acronym> driver which became <span class="productname">FreeTDS/JDBC</span>.</p><p>As the project matured, it gained new participants. Frediano Ziglio greatly expanded the <code class="systemitem">ODBC</code> driver, and continues to improve both it and the underlying TDS library. Bill Thompson wrote most of the present BCP system and added cursors to our <code class="systemitem">CT-Library</code>. James K. Lowden joined the project to add documentation, and in 2002 became its maintainer. Such are the rewards for doing a good deed.</p><p>There have been many other contributions. Please see the <code class="filename">AUTHORS.md</code> in the distribution for a (we hope) complete list.</p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tdshistory.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="what.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="projects.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">History of <acronym class="acronym">TDS</acronym> Versions </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Current Projects, Language Bindings, and Alternatives</td></tr></table></div></body></html>