In an announcement that confirms the view that a key reason for acquiring AshtonTate Corp was not for dBase but for its much less visible InterBase database technology, Borland International Inc, Scotts Valley, California has announced the Borland Object Component Architecture, an open architecture based on the InterBase database engine products. The company says the approach enables all Borland products to achieve a higher level of interoperability with each other, as well as other third party applications, through the company’s Open Database Application Programming Interface. The new Object Architecture uses the Open Database interface to access and update data, and enables Borland products such as dBase, Paradox, Quattro Pro and ObjectVision to share User Familiar Objects, components such as forms, reports, queries and table views, transparently. The interface is based on the SQL Access Group’s Call Level Interface technology and C++ class hierarchy, and it also makes Borland products compliant with Microsoft Corp’s Open Database Connectivity technology, and any other vendor’s specification that is SQL Access compliant. Existing Paradox and dBase users will be provided with upward compatibility to the InterBase Local Engine. The InterBase family of scalable database engines includes the InterBase Local Engine, which is based on Borland’s existing database engines, combined with integration of InterBase server technology, such as support for Binary Large Objects; the upcoming Windows versions of Paradox, dBase and Quattro Pro will include the Local Engine, as will future versions of ObjectVision.
