[ANNOUNCE] Sybtcl-2.5b1 and Oratcl-2.5b1 released

Sybtcl-2.5b1 and Oratcl-2.5b1 are now available for download and testing.

You can find the packages at:

	http://www.neosoft.com/tcl/ftparchive/sorted/databases/sybtcl-2.5b1
	http://www.neosoft.com/tcl/ftparchive/sorted/databases/oratcl-2.5b1

	or 

	ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/sorted/databases/sybtcl-2.5b1
	ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/sorted/databases/oratcl-2.5b1

(if you grabbed Oratcl before this announcement was posted, be aware I uploaded an earlier version by mistake. go back and get the current 2.5b1 package.)

What are Sybtcl & Oratcl? They are database extensions for Tool Command Language (Tcl) that allow access to Sybase and Oracle. For a complete README, follow either HTTP link noted above.

Note that these are beta 1 releases. That means I've made changes and done some testing. Now it is up to you to help me flush out any problems/bugs. I don't recommend that you use beta releases for production code, but I do need your help in testing.

Summary of changes:

Sybtcl-

• Windows NT support: Makefile and DLL included. Tested under Windows/NT only. Mac support is planned, I'm working with another Sybtcl/Mac user to get a Makefile and lib.
• CT-Lib compatiblity layer: Sybtcl normally uses Sybase's DB-Lib interface. I wrote a DB-Lib to CT-Lib (Sybase's other interface) emulation layer. What this means is that it may be possible to port Sybtcl to Linux. So far I've tested the CT-Lib compatibility on Solaris only.
• sybnext now accepts Tcl variables for binding: I've added the ability to bind result columns to Tcl variables. The old method of substituting columns into a code block still works. Ex:

	sybsql $h "select au_lname, au_fname from authors"
	sybnext $h { puts "$lname, $fname } "" lname 1 fname 2

  will execute the 'puts' statement for every row returned, binding the   Tcl variable 'lname' to column 1, 'fname' to column 2.

Oratcl -

• Windows NT support: Makefile and DLL included. Tested under Windows/NT only. Is anyone game to help with a Mac port? email me.
• Cursor variables returned from PL/SQL: The oraplexec command can now bind a cursor variable on return from PL/SQL, and fetch rows from that cursor. Ex:

	set exec_cur [oraopen $lda]
	set fetch_cur [oraopen $lda]
	oraplexec $exec_cur {begin
	    open :empcursor for select empno, ename
	    from emp where job = :job;
	    end;
	} :job ANALYST :empcursor $fetch_cur
	orafetch $fetch_cur {puts "$num $name"} "" num 1 name 2
	

• orafetch now accepts Tcl variables for binding: See the 'sybnext' example above. Tcl variables are bound to result columns for each row returned.
• orabindexec - new command: Allows Tcl variables to be bound to Oracle :bind variables for SQL execution, taking advantage of Oracle's ability to pre-parse and cache SQL statements. Works in conjuction with new 'parseonly' option on orasql. Ex:

	orasql $cur "insert into dept values(:deptno, :dname, :loc)" parseonly
	orabindexec $cur :deptno 98  :dname  ENGINEERING  :loc TUCSON
	orabindexec $cur :deptno 99  :dname  SUPPORT      :loc DENVER

• Asynchronous SQL execution: Allows sending SQL with immediate return. New commands 'orapoll' to check status of SQL; 'orabreak' to interrupt SQL execution on server. New 'async' option for orasql and orabindexec. Ex:

	orasql $cur "select * from emp" async
	puts -nonewline "waiting."
	while {[orapoll $cur] == ""} {
	  puts -nonewline "."
	}
	puts "done"
	orafetch $cur {puts _at_0}

Things to be done before final 2.5 releases:

*more testing, test DLLs under Windows95
*update wisqlite & wosql to use standard dialog, file selects; port to windows
*include Mac makefile & libs.

After these 2.5 releases are stable, I plan to begin work on supporting Tcl 8.0 interfaces and objects.

Enjoy!

-- 
Tom Poindexter   
tpoindex_at_nyx.net
http://www.nyx.net/~tpoindex/

[[Send Tcl/Tk announcements to tcl-announce_at_mitchell.org
  Send administrivia to tcl-announce-request_at_mitchell.org
  Announcements archived at http://www.xpi.com/tcl/comp.lang.tcl.announce/
  The primary Tcl/Tk archive is ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/ ]]