Beyond ODBC, to ADBC and Java Advanced Network Systems has resurfaced with a promise to ship the 2.0.0 version of its ADBC Development Kit this month, software that licenses Adager’s ADBC technology. David Thatcher of Advanced Network Systems said the Development Kit is “similar to JDBC objects without any SQL or unnecessary ODBC overhead.” Features of the kit include improved object oriented approach and documentation, complete IMAGE access, MPE KSAM spoolfile objects (with Create and Read\Write access for all file types) and JOB and SPOOL objects (to get job information and spool file information). The company is also announcing a Java/3k Bundle which includes Minisoft’s new JDBC for ad-hoc reports and SQL application access, as well as Javasoft’s JumpStart, a 600Mb CD-ROM of Java books, reference materials and examples. You can get more details at the Advanced Networks Web site, www.advnetsys.com/java3k.htm. When MPE/iX 6.0 arrives in your mailbox you’ll have the first supported Java implementation for HP 3000s. Java performance is set to improve with 1999 releases of the software from HP, but in the meantime using the language with such tools as ADBC could be a good start on client-server work that can’t endure fat-client overhead. One user reported that the Advanced Network technology is a cross between Native TurboIMAGE calls and JDBC 2.0. ADBC has the setFetchSize() method, which is in the new JDBC 2.0 spec. The method allows you to set the fetch size high for reports/read only information, or to set it low, or even down to one for transactions. The fetch size is the number of records pulled from server to client in a single request, so it can enhance I/O performance with larger fetch sizes. It also includes a lot of the cursoring methods of JDBC 2.0. Copyright 1998 The 3000 NewsWire. All rights reserved