InterBase 2017 Update 1 and Delphi

Embarcadero has just released an updated version of the InterBase 2017 database, with improved performance and platform support.

A few months after the InterBase 2017 release, Embarcadero has just made available InterBase 2017 Update 1. If you are an existing InterBase user, this is a nice update the install, given it has some performance improvements, bug fixes, and new features, as explained in the announcement article I just publsihed at:

https://community.embarcadero.com/article/16575-interbase-2017-update-1-is-now-available

InterBase is a great embedded database, and the IBLite/IBToGo versions come included with RAD Studio for all supported platforms (desktop and mibile). The Windows developer edition of the full RDMBS (a fast, hassle free, fully powered SQL engine) is also included in RAD Studio and helps power the RAD Server database. Not only InterBase is on par with most competing (and often more expensive) solution, but it has unique features like ChangeViews that can be leveraged to greatly optimize the data traffic, something even more important in today's mobile and distributed world.

While RAD Studio Tokyo ships with the previous version, InterBase XE7, the InterBase 2017 versions of the developer server and IBLite/IBToGo are available in GetIt -- currently still the original release, Udpate 1 will be made available early next week. Read the linked article above for current download links and more information on this version of InterBase.

>Not only InterBase is on par with most competing (and often more expensive) >solution Which solutions would those be? Interbase is about $7K USD for the unlimited users version. I can't think of more expensive RDBMSes other than DB2, SQL Server and Oracle. PostgreSQL is free and absolutely nothing added in Interbase 2017 wasn't already present in PostgreSQL. For instance, the addition of Common Table Expressions (CTEs) was most appreciated, but PostgreSQL had them 8 years previously. In addition, the "recursive" keyword was reserved for CTEs, but the functionality was not implemented yet. PG has the recursive functionality. Even worse, expression indexes were present in PostgreSQL since at least version 8.1, which was released 12 years ago! Interbase lacks many modern (and not so modern) SQL features. The timestamp data type, for instance, doesn't even store a time zone. :-( There is no series type, decimal precision and scale is limited to 18 (in PG it's 131,072 before the decimal point and 16,383 after!), varchar is limited to 32K, no spatial types for GIS, no enums, no JSON type, no support for XML, no full text search, no range types, no custom defined types, no ability to directly run procedures written in other languages, no parallel query support, no partitioning support, no compression support, no windowing functions, etc. Given this, I'm left wondering what *mainstream* database solutions you think Interbase is competitive with (I know there are a lot of obscure Delphi-only databases with limited functionality, but they're also not priced anywhere near Interbase).

Joseph, each tool has strengths and weaknesses, InterBase has unique features like change views, a very small footprint including on device installation with the same binary compatible DB file, extensive encryption support, just to name a few. Anyway, while some of the items you list as missing are correct, others I think are available. If you compare the price with open source solutions, anything is more expensive. InterBase is free for local DB with no encryption, and the price depends on the users -- not everyone needs unlimited users. There are still quite a few database engines that are paid (and often also very expensive, including those you mention), so the fact InterBase isn't free should not be a surprise -- I know it was once, long story.

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