Following news that the SQL Access Group is slowing down work on Phase 3 of its SQL Specifictation, the group now says it is changing direction to focus on market demands, and admits it got carried away with the academics of development. Taking a leave of absence, the Group says all work on versions three, four and five of the SQL specification have been put on hold for the next nine months. Now six months behind in getting version one out the door, the Group has just pulled together the first snapshot of technologies that the specification will use. That has begun shipping to members, and the Group optimistically expects products complying with the specification to be around by the end of year. Software Access Group vice-chairman Howard Cohen says it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, pushing ahead with the specifications, but we’re now concentrating on market requirements. Work on version two is continuing and will, the group says, include TCP/IP and Ethernet functions as well as the Common Level Interface, part of its strategy to get the two protocols interoperating with each other. The Common Level Interface has been strongly promoted by Microsoft Corp, which the Group says will be at the heart of Microsoft’s Open Database Connectivity data accessing system, running under Windows. Common Level Interface is currently out in review form at the moment – the Group says it has to be fine-tuned before it can be released to members in July.
