from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Open DataBase Connectivity
ODBC
<standard, database> (ODBC) A {standard} for accessing
different {database} systems. There are interfaces for
{Visual Basic}, {Visual C++}, {SQL} and the ODBC driver pack
contains drivers for the {Access}, {Paradox}, {dBase}, Text,
{Excel} and {Btrieve} databases.
An application can submit statements to ODBC using the ODBC
flavor of SQL. ODBC then translates these to whatever flavor
the database understands.
ODBC 1.0 was released in September 1992.
ODBC is based on {Call-Level Interface} and was defined by the
{SQL Access Group}. {Microsoft} was one member of the group
and was the first company to release a commercial product
based on its work (under {Microsoft Windows}) but ODBC is not
a Microsoft standard (as many people believe).
ODBC drivers and development tools are available now for
{Microsoft Windows}, {Unix}, {OS/2}, and {Macintosh}.
[On-line document?]
["Unix Review", Aug 1995].
(1996-05-27)