xplain2sql 2.4 review

Xplain2sql converts files from Xplain to SQL

License: EFL (Eiffel Forum License) File size: 429K Developer: Berend de Boer

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Xplain2sql converts files from Xplain to SQL. xplain2sql supports a very large subset of Xplain, and it can convert from Xplain to Microsoft SQL Server, DB/2, Inprise InterBase, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, or ANSI-92 SQL.

It can also generate an XML description of the generated SQL. This XML description can be used to create low-level middle-tier code.

A Delphi/ADO XSLT style sheet is included. The C source code release should compile on any platform with an ANSI C compiler.

There are binary releases for FreeBSD, BeOS, Linux, and Windows 2000.

Xplain2sql supports a very large subset of Xplain already, and it is continually extended until full support is reached. Currently it can convert from Xplain to Microsoft SQL Server, Inprise InterBase, DB/2, PostgreSQL, Microsoft Access, and ANSI-92 SQL:

Microsoft SQL Server support is very complete.
Quite complete DB/2 support. Non literal inits are currently missing.
InterBase support for init works only for literal inits (so attributes don't work). And because InterBase doesn't have the concept of temporary table, the extend and value only work for a single user.
PostgreSQL is quite complete with the new PostgreSQL 7.3 release.
Initial, but fairly complete Oracle support.
Generates Microsoft Access data definition commands. However, it seems impossible to run an entire script against an Access database. Having to run each create table statement by hand is quite tedious.
Generates good ANSI-92, however inits with non-literal values cannot be supported by ANSI-92 because it doesn't have the concept of before and after insert triggers.

What's New in This Release:
More faithful support for init [default] expressions.
PostgreSQL output when using values in a stored procedure has been fixed.
MySQL 5 support has been added.
Support for SQLite 3 has been added.
Any and nil support are now correctly implemented for InterBase 6.
Functions like min and max now work as expected on InterBase 6.