> # Preface

> ## About this manual

> ### Intended Audience

> This manual is intended to cover the full range of requirements for anyone wishing to install, use, or configure the Easysoft® Data Access 2000 ODBC-ODBC Bridge. Supplementary information is provided for those wishing to program ODBC applications that link either directly to the bridge (Unix only) or through a driver manager (Unix or Windows environments). This manual is not an ODBC programming manual.

> The sections written for the MS-Windows platforms require some familiarity with the use of buttons, menus, icons and text boxes. Just about anybody with experience of Apple Macintosh computers, Microsoft Windows or the X Window System will have no difficulty with these sections.

> The Unix-based sections require that you are comfortable with a Unix shell, and can perform basic functions like editing a file. More complex activities are spelled out more clearly, but it helps to understand how your system handles dynamic linking of shared objects.

> ### Displaying the Manual

> This manual is available in a variety of forms. The Portable Document Format (.PDF) file can be displayed on-screen using the Acrobat Reader, available free from Adobe, or printed. The PDF is set up for best results when printed double-sided, and staple guides on the front page allow you to bind the pages without losing text in the `gutter' between facing pages.

> The paper size in the PDF is short and squat to help you get a whole page on the screen at a time. PDF is not the best medium for reading online, however;-- although the typesetting is consistent and the format does support hyperlinks, it is essentially a `paper simulator' and navigation is a little more cumbersome than it needs to be. For online reading, we recommend the HTML version of the manual, or the soon-to-be-available HTMLHelp version. These have the advantages that screenshots will display without loss of information no matter what the resolution of the display screen, and that text will flow to fit whatever window size and font size you have set up.

> ### Notational Conventions

> Across the range of Easysoft manuals you will encounter passages that are emphasised with a box and label. There are four box types, explained below:

> A note box provides additional information that may further your understanding of a particular procedure or piece of information relating to a particular section of this manual.

> NB | Note boxes often reiterate information clearly, where the body text may be unclear.

> A caution box is used to provide important information that you should check and understand, prior to starting a particular procedure or reading a particular section of this manual.

> Caution! |
> Be sure to pay attention to the preceding paragraph, as Caution boxes are important!

> A reference box refers to resources external to the manual, whether suggested reading on paper or the internet, or a useful website or other source of useful resources.

> REF | For more manuals that use this convention, see the rest of the Easysoft documentation.

> A platform note provides platform-specific information for a particular procedure step.

> Linux | In linux, you need to be logged in as root to make many important changes.

> ### Typographical Conventions

> To avoid ambiguity, typographic effects have been applied to certain types of reference:

> - User interface components such as buttons or icon names, menu names and selections are presented in bold, for instance:
> Click Next to continue.
> Where there is a chain of submenus, the following convention is used:
> Choose Start > Programs > Command Prompt.
> - Commands to be typed are presented using a `monotype` font, for example:
>   1. At the command prompt type `admin`.
> Additionally, interactive sessions are shown in a `strong monotype` font (for system output) and `monotype` (for user input), for instance:
> 1. Once you have logged in, type the following:

> `C:\> admin`

> - Keyboard Commands
> It is assumed that all typed commands will be terminated with the <Enter> key, and as such this will not normally be indicated in this manual. Other keypresses are indicated by the key names being enclosed by angle brackets, and presented in oblique text, e.g.
> 1. Hit <F1> for help.

>    NB | Key presses are shown in italic to distinguish between, for example, hitting <del> and typing `<del>`, that is, typing an open angle bracket (`<`), followed by the three character string `del` followed by a close angle bracket (`>`).

> - Any file listings will be presented using the `monotype` style.
> - Other names on the system, such as file names, directories and database fields are presented `monospaced` too.

> ### Chapter Guide

> Because Easysoft® Data Access 2000 middleware supports such a broad spectrum of platforms, we have grouped information within each chapter into two broad classes of system, Windows and Unix. When printed double-sided, useful tabs are marked to help you skip to the section relevant to your operating system.

> Early indications are that the majority of installations will have a Windows NT server and a Linux-based client. For this reason, although either part of the bridge may be installed on any supported platform, the chapters each emphasise the more popular platform.

> - Chapter 1, "Introduction"
> gives an overview of the ODBC architecture, and shows what the ODBC-ODBC Brings to it.
> - Chapter 2, "Installation"
> is a step-by-step guide to installing the software.
> - Chapter 3, "Connection"
> explains everthing you need to know (almost!) to set up an ODBC connection across a network.
> - Chapter 4, "Configuration"
> explains the configuration options for the server, in windows or unix.
> - Chapter 5, "Interfacing"
> this chapter helps you to build your unix client application to connect through the bridge. It covers C, PHP under Apache, Perl with the DBI and DBD::ODBC modules installed, mxODBC and Rexx/SQL.

> ### Trademarks

> Throughout this manual, Windows refers generically to Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000 or NT, which are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. The X Window system is specifically excluded from this and is referred to as The X Window System or just X.

> Note also that though the name `UNIX` is a registered trademark of `UNIX` System Laboratories, the term has come to encompass a whole range of `UNIX`-like operating systems, including the free, public Linux and even the proprietary Solaris. We use Unix (note the lower case) as a general term covering the wide range of Open and proprietary operating systems commonly understood to be Unix `flavours'.

> Easysoft, Easysoft Data Access 2000 and OOB are trademarks of Easysoft Ltd.

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