Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 22:32:49 -0700                                           
From: "Joshua J. Berry" <jberry@calpoly.edu>                                    
To: ...                                                  
Subject: CSC 206 - Database Interface v1.0    

After many long hours of blood, sweat and toil (OK, not really), version 1.0 of 
the Database interface has finally escaped.  No, it wasn't released...it slipped
out the back door while I wasn't looking. ;)                                    
                                                                                
Version 1.0 includes the following:                                             
                                                                                
  - Everything you could ever want in a Database API.

  - A serialized-object implementation, for those of you who don't have a       
    full-fledged Oracle database handy, and would prefer to develop/test on your
    own machines.  This implementation should work in UNIX as well as Windows   
    (it just saves your test case data to a file in the current directory).     
                                                                                
  - The long-awaited examples.                                                  
                                                                                
  - Up-to-date documentation.                                                   
                                                                                
Major changes in the API:                                                       
                                                                                
  - Test case IDs are now ints, and are automatically generated by the database.
    You don't get to assign your own test case IDs; the database implementation 
    will handle it for you.                                                     
                                                                                
This is the last time I am planning on making any changes to the API, unless one
of the following two situations occur:               

  - People have features they want addded that won't affect the already-existing
    functionality or API.                                                       
                                                                                
  - There is a crippling design flaw.                                           
                                                                                
I may release new versions of the examples and/or the seralized implementation, 
if bugs are found.  Also, the Oracle implementation needs some heavy            
refactoring, so it's not available yet.  However, you should be able to begin   
developing your programs using the serialized implementation.  The Oracle       
implementation will function as a drop-in replacement.                          
                                                                                
As usual, you can grab everything from [url censored].        
                                                                                
Please report any bugs/questions/new feature requests via Bugzilla, which can   
also be found at the link above.                                                
                                                                                
Thanks, and have a nice day.                                                    
                                                                                
-- Josh