Lozano talks about the
new mSQL for OS/2

Programmers Yuri Dario (american) and Mark Prati (italian) works in Mini SQL port to OS/2 Warp. Brazilian software engineer Fernando Lozano talks here about the new Mini SQL.


mSQL Origins
by Fernando Lozano
The First IBM Certified Network Communications Engineer in Latin America


The mSQL database management system was developed at Bond University,
Australia, by Researcher David Hughes, a.k.a. Bambi. It was part of "Minerva Project" whose goal was to develop a framework for building network management applications.

But why to develop a new database system, when there are already so many
comercial and freeware databases?

Most client/server relational databases was so heavy. They needed a very
powerfull machine with plenty of CPU and RAM. Anyone who has already
written a program to access an Oracle, DB2 or MS SQL Server databases
knows how long it takes just to connect (about 3 to 5 seconds). The
Minerva Project needed a fast and light database system. It did not need
all the features available on high-end databases and the implied
overhead.

So was born miniSQL, later shortened to mSQL. It's a real client/server
relational database systems, built to recognise an ANSI SQL subset and a
simple API for C programming.

At the same time mSQL was born, another thing was happening that would
change the world as we know: the internet boom and the massification of
the World Wide Web.

The WWW is not fuelled by HTML files, as many people think, but by CGI
scripts, who offer real-time information and allow the users at their
web browser to send information for the web sites. Search Engines,
Eletronic Commerce, On-Line Catalogs, Chat Roons, all dynamic content is
fuelled by CGI scripts.

The HTTP protocol used on the World Wide Web has a very interesting
feature, that makes all database systems a little bad to work with: an
HTTP session consist of just the request for an URL and the page sent as
a reply. If some user browses from page to page, the HTTP protocol has
no idea he was the same user that requested the previous page. That's
exactly the same as if the page was requested by another user.

To the CGI programmer, this means every page gets a new connection to
the database. Can you imagine 5 seconds waiting for each page, this
besides the downloading time?

The mSQL database was a perfect fit for these applications. Quick, fast
and light. So mSQL grow with the World Wide Web. Soon you had mSQL
interfaces for the programming languages popular on the Internet: Perl,
Phyton, TCL, PHP and many others. Bambi himself created a web gateway
for mSQL, named W3-mSQL.

Many ISP's and companies started using mSQL and Bambi left Bond
University to create his own company, Hughes Technologies, to continue
mSQL development. Since then mSQL has become a comercial product, with
supporting contracts and the like, but Bambi allowed its use for
non-comecial uses, like self study and not-for-profit organizations.

Hughes Technologies developed the second-generation mSQL, which is today at release 2.0.4.1. This new mSQL comes with a bigget ANSI SQL subset, a query optimizer, the ability to use many indexes per table and a
completely new web gateway, comparable to other CGI scripting languages.

However, mSQL still follows the Open Source development model, by which
we have Linux, Perl, Apache and many other software. This model is also
being used today buy big software companies like Netscape and Corel.

If you want more information about mSQL, you can visit Hughes
Technologies Web Site (http://www.Hughes.com.au) and The mSQL PC Home
Page (http://www.blnet.com/msqlpc).


mSQL and OS/2

Like any good research project, mSQL was born and is developed on Unix
systems. But the source code availability and its popularity among ISP's
lead some people to port mSQL to other operating systems. There are
ports of the server for OS/2 and Windows NT/95, and the client API has
also being ported to MacIntosh and Amiga.

The OS/2 port was started by Dirk Ohme, using one of the first releases
of mSQL-1. He made a superb work adapting mSQL to the OS/2 world
(including WPS objects and INF documentation). Besides, his work was the
basic for the Win32 ports made by Peter Tillemans.

However, the ports and information about then were scatered on the
Internet, and neither Bond University nor Hughes tried to mantain any
information about then. (Although Bambi stayed in touch with the porters
and helped then).

That's why I created The mSQL PC Home Page
(http://www.blnet.com/msqlpc). My goal was to have a central point of
information about running mSQL and accessing it under OS/2 and Windows.
It was easy to get support from the company I work for, BL Informática
from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, because we were using mSQL on our web site.
So BL Informática hosted The mSQL PC Home Page inside its virtual
domain.

For almost a year I followed the work made by Bambi (Hughes Tec.), Dirk
and Peter. But sooner or later the volunteers that made the ports would
have to give up. Then the mSQL ports for OS/2 and Win32 get stuck at
release 2.0.1. The Windows and OS/2 community is still too weak
suporting that kind of project, specialy if you compare to the Linux
community. In spite of that, there were still new third-party tools
supporting mSQL unser OS/2 and NT.

After some months I decided someone had to make anything, else the mSQL
port for OS/2 would die by obsolescence. Win32 users had Bambi's promise
of an official port, but without a delivery date. OS/2 users had neither
a promise...

I believe OS/2 needs so much something like mSQL. One of the causes of
Windows popularity in the SOHO market is how easy you can get a
programming with a bundled database system, even when this database is a
toy like DBF or Access files. OS/2 programming tools do not bundle any
kind of database, and the available databases (Oracle, Db2, Sybase, etc)
are very expensive. It's so hard for a student or small company to start
developing an Information System for OS/2, not because the lack of good
programming GUI tools, but because the lack of a database.

The mSQL server could be easily bundled with OS/2 develoing tools. Or
they could just include mSQL interfaces and documentation on how to use
then, pointing to the download site for the OS/2 port of mSQL (about
2Mb, an easy download). Actually, I was recebtly informed that Sibyl (a
Delphi look-alike) already does that.

So I started a personal campaign to promote mSQL to the OS/2 community.
I aksed well-know sites such as The OS/2 SuperSite, OS/2 Connect and the
@Macarlo, Inc. to include links to The mSQL PC Home Page. I made
calls for programmers to continue Dirk's work, and I wrote two
step-by-step tutorials about instalation and use of mSQL under OS/2.
These tutorials were published on EMD2 (http://www.edm2.com), the
premier OS/2 programming magazine.

My campaign is working. mSQL started to become known, and some
programmers took a look at Dirk's port and tried to correct its bugs.
Other programmers decided to look at the latest Unix sources and try to
compile then using EMX.

The first programmers to have a real commitment to mSQL on OS/2 was Yuri
Dario from OS/2 NetLabs (http://www.netlabs.org). We used EMX and
quickly had mSQL 2.0.3 (the later at the time, a month ago) running. We
are debbuging his port (already moved to mSQL 2.0.4.1) and soon we will
release a public beta. Another programmer commited to mSQL on OS/2 is
Mark Prati from Mentor Systems (http://www.mentorsystem.com/mentor),
who is working on a Visual Age C++ port and has already an internal
alpha running.

They are sharing ideas and patches, while I give then "moral support ;-)
try to coordinate the project and continue to fight for more help from
the OS/2 community. I have the task of documenting the work and act as
the first-level support for users. The project goes so well that OS/2
NetLabs already announce the new port as part of NetLabs, besides GIMP
port (a wondefull painting program) and Mozzila (that a really big
project that unfortunately will take longer to show results).

We need and welcome all help we can get. If you wish to join us as a
programmer, beta-tester or integrating mSQL with any OS/2 programming
tool, please send e-mail to me as lozano@blnet.com or as
fsl@centroin.com.br.

Stay tuned on The mSQL PC Home Page (http://www.blnet.com/msqlpc), there
will be many great news on the following weeks!
@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited

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