August Software has announced the release of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) support for Apple’s Darwin kernel. Darwin is the open source “core” of Mac OS X that’s freely available for download from Apple’s Web site. The ODBC kit is available at www.sqlmac.com.
August Software hoped that the release of a complete ODBC Software Development Kit (SDK) for Darwin would encourage developers to bring existing UNIX and Linux database apps to the Macintosh. The software removes developers’ need to retool their products as Carbon applications to get them to work on the Mac.
The ODBC SDK eliminates the need for per-desktop ODBC control panels and drivers on the Mac, said August Software — when used with ODBC Router, developers using the SDK have the tools they need to build cross-platform applications and Web services that can access any SQL database system.