I have been having difficulty searching for reference documentations on the Firebird database. As I have mentioned in a previous entry, openly available documentation on Firebird is outrageously lacking, comparing to other open source databases. The only useful reference that I can lay my hands on is the much out-dated Interbase 6 Beta manuals in PDF format. Yes, I do have a choice to purchase the IBPhoenix Developer CD (USD$149 for developers) which comes with 1,000+ pages of “Firebird User Guide” and “Firebird Reference Guide”, but (1) hey, I am paying for something that other open source database users get for free (2) it appears that only the softbook PDF version is available. I might eventually go down that route after Firebird 1.5 is released, but felt dissatisfied and annoyed. Firebird is a great RDBMS that performs well and is functionally rich, but there is no way I can know what sort of goodies it provides without a proper reference manual!!
No wonder Firebird has been left out behind in a recent article on choosing an open-source database.
Interesting links:
- Firebird document project – but there is not yet a download section…
- firebird-docs mailing list archive – I see many people on the mailing list also have the same frustration.
- What’s New in Firebird 1.5 up to RC8. By the way, how do I fix the URL to always show the latest revision on a specific branch in ViewCVS?
More links will be added when they are discovered.
You sure said it! I just moved to Firebird for a new project I am building. Its pretty great but the docs are just CRAP.
Thanks for posting about the LIMIT stuff, I found you on google and you saved me about 3.21 years digging through the IBPhoenix site…
I can not believe that there is not a simple ‘SQL Reference’ link there. its wacky.
Exactly. The SQL reference that I can found on the IBPheonix site is actually very old, and it does not really tell you all the syntax. I guess the only way to get help is joining the support mailing list. Why are they using Yahoo Group for mailing lists is beyond me, but it seems that (and devshed forum) are the only ways of getting help…
I mentioned that already under another post: if you are using Firebird in .NET, you might want to look at http://www.dotnetfirebird.org.