September 1992

ODBC 1.0 released

MicrosoftThe software giant behind Windows, Office, Azure, and Xbox — founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. and partners shipped the open dataGovernment and institutional datasets published for public reuse — APIs, portals, and transparency dashboards.base Connectivity (ODBC) SDKSoftware development kit — tools and libraries for building software on a platform. in September 1992 — a standard C APIApplication programming interface — a defined way for programs to talk to each other or to a service. for talking to SQLStructured Query Language — the standard language for querying relational databases. databases.

What it was for

DatabaseODBC let one Windows app query Oracle, SQLStructured Query Language — the standard language for querying relational databases. Server, and Access through the same driver interface — the pattern JDBC followed for JavaA portable language running on the JVM — dominant in enterprise servers, Android, and big data. and every ORM still abstracts today. It made client/server database apps portable across vendors.

Companies

  • Microsoft

Why it's here

ODBC standardized how applications connect to relational databaseA database structured as tables with rows and columns, queried with SQL — the dominant model for business data.s.

Why it mattered

Driver-based database access became the default integration model for decades.

What it solved

Each database shipped a proprietary C APIApplication programming interface — a defined way for programs to talk to each other or to a service.; apps were locked to one vendor.

Media

  • Database
    ImageDatabase

    BernardoSulzbach, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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