Comparing the client interfaces

Table 1-1 compares Sybase’s client interfaces:

**Table 1-1: Comparing Sybase’s client interfaces**
	Client-Library	DB-Library	Embedded SQL	ODBC
Available Client/Server features	All	DB-Library does not support new features added to Client-Library version 11.0 and later, except for these: dbsetconnect routine that specifies server connection information SYBOCS_DBVERSION environment variable that externally configures DB-Library version level at runtime LDAP directory service support on Windows platform MIT Kerberos network and mutual authentication services on Linux, Sun Solaris, and Microsoft Windows platforms For information about these features, see the Open Client DB-Library/C Reference Manual.	All except data stream messaging and registered procedure notifications	Similar to DB-Library; different implementations may provide different feature sets, or may implement the same feature differently
Query-language independent?	Yes	No	No	No
Supports non-database development?	Yes	No	Yes	No
Interface style	Synchronous or asynchronous	Synchronous	Synchronous	Synchronous
Chief advantages	Powerful, generic, portable	Simple, portable	Simple, portable, and an international standard	Simple, widely available
Chief disadvantages	Learning curve associated with a new interface	Sybase-specific, does not support all generic client/server services	Less flexible than call-level interfaces	Lack of a single conformance test suite for all implementations results in a mixed level of function support