Welcome to Michael Peppler's Home Page

NOTE: This page is out of date - see www.peppler.org for up to date information

Who am I?

I am a consultant specializing in Sybase, perl & C services. I live in Coppet, Switzerland (that's near Geneva). Please see www.peppler.org for details.

I am the author of sybperl (the Sybase OpenClient extensions to Perl) as well as DBD::Sybase (a DBI compatible module). You can find information on these freely available perl modules on this page.

The International Sybase User Group (ISUG)

I'm a past board member of the International Sybase User Group (ISUG). I strongly encourage you to become a member. The cost is currently US$75 per year, and the benefits are really worth it (several books, educational discounts, conference discounts... and a free copy of Adaptive Server IQ!)
There are several electronic mailing lists that are handled by the ISUG. The most important to me is ase-linux-list@isug.com which has been set up as a meeting point for everyone who is interested in using the newly available linux port of Adaptive Server Enterprise on linux.
See the section on Sybase on linux for more details.

Sybperl - the Sybase OpenClient extensions to Perl

Sybperl documentation and papers

Sybperl recently turned 10 years old! Here is the original announcement posted to comp.lang.perl on September 3 1991: Sybperl beta testers wanted
The Sybperl FAQ
Sybperl 2.0: Using the Sybase::CTlib module, an article I wrote for the Sybase Server, the magazine of the International Sybase User Group.
Writing Cleaner Sybperl Code (PDF format). This is another article I wrote for the fall 1998 issue of the ISUG Technical Journal (which is the new name of the Sybase Server). Get the SybTools module that is referenced in the article. (Note that you should probably use the Sybase::Simple module referenced below instead.)
Sybperl Miscellania Some sybperl comments, written by Adrian Scott.
Building sybperl on linux by yours truly. Some brief comments on what needs to be done to get the Sybase::DBlib part of sybperl to build.
How to build Sybperl on Linux written by Ken Oster. Note Some of Ken's directives are out of date with respect to the ASE 11.0.3.3 release for linux. In particular it is NOT necessary (nor recommended) to build sybperl (or DBD::Sybase) statically on linux. See also the ASE on Linux FAQ.
SQL Server & Linux The Linux Gazette issue 18 has an article by Brian Jepson on connecting to MS-SQL server from Linux. The same techniques can be applied when connecting to Sybase from Linux, and when connecting to MS-SQL Server from other Unix platforms, provided you have Sybase OpenClient available.
Sybperl/DBD::Sybase Bug Database I have a simple bug database where I try to log problems that are reported to me, and that I try to keep up-to-date. I've written a quickie CGI script to access this database, and to log new bugs - New! the database is searchable. This runs on my own network, over a K56 link, so don't be surprised if it's slow!. The source for the CGI script, which took me roughly 2 hours to write, is available here.
DBD::Sybase vs. Sybperl. This is a "meditation" that I posted to Perl Monks a few weeks ago.
DBI docs in PDF format and DBD::Sybase docs in PDF format thanks to Roleigh Martin.

Sybperl source

Available from CPAN (http://search.cpan.org/~mewp/, or from http://www.peppler.org/freeware/sybperl.html

Sybase::Simple

This is a simplified API module that sits on top of the Sybase::CTlib module, and it is derived from the SybTools module that I wrote to go with the second article for the ISUG Technical Journal (see above).
This code is beta-level code at the moment. I've used it quite a lot, but I'll feel more comfortable when more people have sent me feedback...

Please go to http://www.peppler.org/freeware/sybase-simple.html for more information.

Sybperl mailing list:

There is a sybperl related mailing list at sybperl-l@peppler.org. Send a message to sybperl-l-request@peppler.org with

subscribe

in the body to subscribe. The mailing list is archived and searchable: http://www.peppler.org/archive/sybperl-l/.

DBI/DBD modules & Sybase:

I now have a reasonably complete implementation of the DBI API for Sybase in the DBD::Sybase module. For more info on DBI try http://dbi.perl.org.

See http://www.peppler.org/freeware/dbd-sybase.html for more information.

Sybase on linux

Sybase has released Adaptive Server Enterprise 11.0.3.3 for linux. Please see http://linux.sybase.com for details.

Some other resources

The Sybase ASE on Linux FAQ: I have made a (very) small FAQ for the various problems that Sybase on linux can generate.
There is a Sybase on linux mailing list hosted by the International Sybase User Group. Messages can be sent to ase-linux-list@isug.com and you can subscribe to the list by going to http://www.isug.com/ISUG2/ase_linux_form.html. ISUG collects some information from you on the subscribe page - this is to help us lobby Sybase in favor of linux, not to send a host of marketing info your way!
The mailing list is searchable at http://mathforum.org/epigone/ase-linux-list.

BCPtool

Anthony Mandic has written a GUI tool to facilitate moving data between Sybase servers using the BCP API. His program uses Sun's Xview look and feel. Currently only binaries for Solaris/SPARC and Linux/x86 are available. You can view the documentation (including some screenshots) and/or download the binaries from http://www.peppler.org/~am/bcptool.
NOTE: I have started work on a GTK+/CT-Lib version of BCP tool. The first test version is ready - if you want to try it out you can download it from bcptool-1.9.0.tar.gz
The GTK+ library should be installed by default on most Linux systems, but it's quite easy to get and build for any system that has X Window libraries.

Anthony has also written a paper on setting up Sybase on Solaris.