For quite a while now I've been looking for reliable client-server solution
which would have Microsoft tools (preferably VB) as a client. I tried to
connect to Informix at first, but all drivers I could put my hands on were
buggy in one way or another.
Now I am testing SQL-Server, hoping that Microsoft knows how to talk to
Microsoft.

I attached SQL Server  6.5 table to Access 7.0 and accessed it through
SQLSVR32.DLL ODBC driver version 2.65.0201

It basically worked, but after an attempt to store a record with duplicate key

(which is correctly recognized and reported by SQL Server), no further action
is possible. Whatever I try to do (even when starting to type something in the

Access grid), I get ODBC error
  Unclosed quote  before the character string 'P'unique_key_value_'r10000ra'
Obviously, something confuses the driver.
It persists until table is closed and reopened.

Is there any way to avoid such a behaviour? Should I expect more bugs in this
environment?

Also, all oppinions and experiences (both good and bad) about VB as a
front-end and SQL Server (or Informix) as back-end would be very welcome.

Thanks in advance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Department of Applied Mathematics
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
Zagreb, Croatia

You had a question about using VB and SQL Server 6.5.  I've been
involved on a project using RDO (and, thus, ODBC) with VB and 6.5, and
with VB and SQL Servers (Sybase and MS) for a couple of years.  I've
been pretty happy with it.

One thing you should be sure to do is to use client-side cursors instead
of server-side.  Also, using optimistic locking is kind of a hassle-
I've found it easier to implement it on my own than to depend on the
ODBC driver to do it for me.  Error handling is another issue.  Not a
problem, but one more thing you need to handle.

If you'd like a few days consulting on the topic, I'd be happy to
oblige. Easy stuff through the newsgroups is free, of course, but if you
have some money burning a hole in your budget, I do some mentoring on
this stuff from time to time.

--
12/13/96 12:12
Ben McEwan
Geist, LLC

(518)274-5042

<SNIP>