sybase versions between 12 and 15 inclusive - some advice needed

[Database Administrator]

Hello,

I thought I would ask here for advice about moving from sybase 12 to
sybase 15. Version naming in software has become such a bewildering
affair that I gave up using the sybase site. Hopefully there are some
sybase wizards here who can sum up the information without all the
marketing verbiage.

We are on sybase 12 and are using a third-party product that have just
moved to sybase 15. The vendor says that sybase 12 is still supported
but I am skeptical and worried in case we are forced to move (we
cannot escape from this third-party product). What I need to know is
what versions there from 12 to 15 and what are the main differences
are from a compatibility migration point of view. For example, what
happens when a third-party server designed and built using sybase 15
tries to talk to a version 12 server? version 13 (if it exists)? etc
etc.

If we have to move to sybase 15 another thing I need to know is about
some code we have written in C using dblib. Is dblib still supported
in sybase 15? We cannot move to using ctlib right now. Is the commit
server still programmed in the same way? The dblib code is using two
phase commits.

Regards,

Andrew Marlow

[Database Administrator]

In article <9a404d3c-4d6a-40af-99fb-73287cb92940
@k39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>, apm35@student.open.ac.uk says...
> Hello,
>
> I thought I would ask here for advice about moving from sybase 12 to
> sybase 15. Version naming in software has become such a bewildering
> affair that I gave up using the sybase site. Hopefully there are some
> sybase wizards here who can sum up the information without all the
> marketing verbiage.
>
> We are on sybase 12 and are using a third-party product that have just
> moved to sybase 15. The vendor says that sybase 12 is still supported
> but I am skeptical and worried in case we are forced to move (we
> cannot escape from this third-party product). What I need to know is
> what versions there from 12 to 15 ...

None. They went directly from 12 to 15 because of the perceived issues
with the unlucky number 13 in the US and some other european countries,
and unlucky 14 in some other cultures. So 15 is the immediate follow-on
version from 12.

.....

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Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in the
newsgroups if possible).

[Database Administrator]

> None. They went directly from 12 to 15 because of the perceived issues
> with the unlucky number 13 in the US and some other european countries,
> and unlucky 14 in some other cultures. So 15 is the immediate follow-on
> version from 12.
>

Well, actually we considered 12.5 to be a full major release as well.
And there have been an oddball or two in there, such as the 12.5.3a
release (provided encryption before it was rolled into the main
codeline).

But anyway, major releases for ASE were:

12.0
12.5
15.0

In general, applications built for higher versions will work against
lower versions provided that they did not use any of the new
functionality introduced in higher versions. For instance, the
increase in the max length of varchars (255 in 12.0, larger (depends
on page size) in 12.5 and higher))

[Database Administrator]

Hello,

Regarding your DB-Library code, DB-Library is still supported and will
be
into the future. The main difference between DB-Library and CT-
Library
is that DB-Library has been functionally frozen. No new features are
added to DB-Library. Bugs will still be fixed.

All of the new features go into CT-Library. So if you want to take
advantage
of newer features in ASE such as wide columns, large column/table
identifiers,
certain security features and so on, you would need to use CT-Library.

As others have said, you can certainly use a DB-Library client that
was built
on 12.x against ASE 15.x or vice versa knowing that you can't use many
of
the new features available in the newer versions.

Do remember that Sybase requires recompiling an application when going
from one major release to the next. Do not expect that an application
compiled on 15.x will be able to run with older 12.x libraries either.

Thanks,
Neal

[Database Administrator]

On 17 Jan, 15:07, SybaseNeal wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Regarding your DB-Library code, DB-Library is still supported and will
> be
> into the future. The main difference between DB-Library and CT-
> Library
> is that DB-Library has been functionally frozen. No new features are
> added to DB-Library. Bugs will still be fixed.
>
> All of the new features go into CT-Library. So if you want to take
> advantage
> of newer features in ASE such as wide columns, large column/table
> identifiers,
> certain security features and so on, you would need to use CT-Library.
>
> As others have said, you can certainly use a DB-Library client that
> was built
> on 12.x against ASE 15.x or vice versa knowing that you can't use many
> of
> the new features available in the newer versions.
>
> Do remember that Sybase requires recompiling an application when going
> from one major release to the next. Do not expect that an application
> compiled on 15.x will be able to run with older 12.x libraries either.
>
> Thanks,
> Neal

This answers all my questions. Thanks!

-Andrew M.

[mehaghadge]

Hi All,

I am facing same issue actually.
We have an application running on Sybase 12.5. We have most of the code return in CPP (using client library). Now Sybase version is going to be upgraded to 15.
Currently I am not having any enviroment where I can practice the compilation with new version to check if there will be any issue while it actually goes to production. If you can help me out for the diffrences these verion have , the issue that I may face while upgradation and re-complining of the code with new version.
Thanks in advance.