Information on these technologies is free for the browsing. Microsoft does not charge for it — the content is free.

ADO — ActiveX Data Objects, used mostly with Active Server Pages (ASP) and Internet Information Server, as well as with Visual Studio application development for Internet applications:

You’ll find a full article at http://www.micros oft.com/accessdev/articles/movs202.htm on ADO, its hierarchy and how its used. Examples, using Access and SQL/Server, are both included. These can be taken over to the HP 3000, of course.

DAO — Data Access Objects, whose latest version is 3.5 (32 bit), is the current release of data access within Visual Studio tools using ODBC.

RDO - Remote Data Objects - an extension to DAO for enterprise data access. Available only with the Enterprise Edition of Visual Studio (or its component tools).

Information on both can be found at http://msdn.mi crosoft.com/developer/enterprise/visualtools (You may need to register to see this content, but you can opt out of any mailings and so forth).

Both of these sites, and many others, have virtually everything one needs to know on ODBC, how to use its various flavors, and how to make sense out of the alphabet soup.

Have fun surfing!