From: Jim Winstead
Date: September 10 2007 6:17pm
Subject: MySQL Connector/ODBC 5.1.0-alpha is available!
List-Archive: http://lists.mysql.com/announce/483
Message-Id: <20070910181713.GA30023@trainedmonkey.com>
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Dear MySQL users,

MySQL Connector/ODBC 5.1.0-alpha, a new version of the ODBC driver for
the MySQL database management system, has been released.  This release
is the first of the new 5.1 series and is suitable for use with any
MySQL server version since MySQL 4.1, including MySQL 5.0, 5.1, and 6.0.
(It will not work with 4.0 or earlier releases.)

Keep in mind that this is a alpha release, and as with any other
pre-production release, caution should be taken when installing on
production level systems or systems with critical data. Not all of the
features planned for the final Connector/ODBC 5.1 release are implemented.

The release is now available in source and binary form for a number of
platforms from our download pages at

   http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/5.1.html

and mirror sites. Note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this
point in time, so if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try
again later or choose another download site.

We welcome and appreciate your feedback, bug reports, bug fixes, patches,
etc.:

   http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/Contributing

Platform notes:
* There are no installer packages for Microsoft Windows x64 Edition.
* There is no binary package for Mac OS X on 64-bit PowerPC because Apple
  does not currently provide a 64-bit PowerPC version of iODBC.
* The HP-UX 11.23 IA64 binary package does not include the GUI bits because
  of problems building Qt on that platform.

Changes since the last 3.51 release:

  Functionality added or changed:
  * Added support for SQL_C_WCHAR.
  * Added support for Unicode functions (SQLConnectW, etc).
  * Added descriptor support (SQLGetDescField, SQLGetDescRec, etc)

Changes planned for upcoming releases:

  Functionality to add or change:
  * Add support for SQL_NUMERIC_STRUCT:
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms714556.aspx
  * Replace installer library with new implementation (from v5 tree)
  * Implement native Windows setup library
  * Implement native Mac OS X setup library
  * Replace OPTIONS flags with individual DSN settings (but support OPTIONS
    for backwards-compatibility)
  * Fix support for SQLBIGINT (Bug #28887):
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms714121.aspx
  * Make diagnostics support standards-compliant:
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms711021.aspx
  * Add support for SQL_ATTR_METADATA_ID:
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms716447.aspx
  * Implement SQLBrowseConnect():
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms714565.aspx
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms712446.aspx
  * Implement SQLCancel() (Bug #15601):
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms714112.aspx
  * Implement arrays of parameters:
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms711818.aspx

Enjoy!

Jim Winstead
MySQL Inc.