RE: DRDA Connection Support (was news400 goes negative on IBM?)

["Wilt, Charles" <CWilt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Steve Richter
> Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 9:30 AM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: Re: DRDA Connection Support (was news400 goes 
> negative on IBM?)
> 
> 
> 
> Vernon,
> 
> A lot of good info here.  What I dont understand is where are and who
> owns the specs for the ARD?  After all, a relational database could be
> nothing more than a program which responds correctly to the SQL
> requests sent by the iSeries thru the DRDA pipe.
> 
> 
> I am curious to know why no one has written a low cost DRDA interface
> for Windows. If the reason is because IBM will not release the spec
> unless you pay a lot of money and royalties, then we are back to the
> assertion that the iSeries is effectively a closed system.
> 
> -Steve
> 
> -- 


Steve,

Nope the specs are open and published on the web. Anyone can write their own ARD.  

http://www.opengroup.org/dbiop/

The problem is while all the other DB vendors have taken advantage of the openness of the spec to include DRDA client capability, none have integrated DRDA servers into their RDBMS.

Even Oracle, instead of integrating a DRDA server into the DB used the specs to create a translator that runs on the iSeries to convert from the DRDA protocol to their proprietary protocol.  Though I should point out that I believe Oracle licensed the specs from IBM prior to the release of the specs to the Open Group.

IBM's DB2 is the most open DB out there.  Everybody else requires a proprietary protocol to access their RDBMS.  

HTH,

Charles