samuels@community-chest.uucp (Michael Samuels) (01/13/90)
Has anyone out in netland heard of an effort by vendors to agree on extensions to ANSI SQL? Since the update to ANSI SQL won't be ready until 1995 or so, there is a need for some agreement on extensions to the current standards. Info will be summarized to the net if there is anything to post. Michael Samuels The MITRE Corporation samuels@community-chest.mitre.org Mailstop Z676 (703) 883-7828 7525 Colshire Drive McLean, VA 22102
jeff@unify.uucp (Jeff Mischkinsky) (01/14/90)
In article <88546@linus.UUCP> samuels@community-chest.UUCP (Michael Samuels) writes: >Has anyone out in netland heard of an effort by vendors to agree >on extensions to ANSI SQL? Since the update to ANSI SQL won't >be ready until 1995 or so, there is a need for some agreement on >extensions to the current standards. Info will be summarized to >the net if there is anything to post. > I am Unify Corporation's representative on the ANSI SQL committee. Here's a quick summary of some of what the committee is doing. The ANSI SQL committee (X3H2) has been working on extensions to the current standard. In fact since the original SQL standard was issued in 1986, 2 additional SQL standards have been approved. 1. X3.168-1989 standardizes embedded SQL for PL/1, Fortran, Pascal, Cobol, C, and Ada. The 1st four were included in an "informational annex" in the original SQL standard. 2. X3.135-1989 is a replacement standard for the original SQL standard (X3.135-1986). It includes a "referential integrity enhancement" as well some errata. Both these standards have identical ISO counterparts. The committee is currently working on a new standard, informally called SQL2. It includes a large number of extensions. The working draft is over 500 pages. A partial list of new stuff (in no particular order) is: dynamic SQL, datetime datatype, schema manipulation, referential actions, outer join, var char datatype, multiple module support, subqueries in value expressions, outer union, collating sequence support, national character set support, additional privilege support, better error diagnostics, etc., etc. There is a reasonably good chance of some kind of vote on the draft occurring this year. Of course this is all subject to change as the standards process grinds away. In addition I believe that X/OPEN is planning on doing something with the dynamic sql language which is in the draft in the near future. Remote SQL access is also a hot issue. There is a draft of the Remote Database Access standard which will be voted on shortly and an independent vendor group called SQL/ACCESS is working on a "prototype" implementation. (Standard disclaimers and trademark acknowledgements apply.) -- Jeff Mischkinsky internet: jeff@unify.UUCP Unify Corporation ...!{csusac,pyramid}!unify!jeff 3870 Rosin Court voice: (916) 920-9092 fax: (916) 921-5340 Sacramento, CA 95834