I'm going to ask a very general question, I'll apologize now.
I have no idea what to ask or where to start when building a Database Application.
I'm using windows xp and do have office 2002 but don't want to use microsoft access.
I want it to run on a windows operating system.
I would like to build a gui for entering data and viewing data (kind of like an information dashboard) and also the ability to create reports. This part is really programming related so I won't go on.
I understand that for the application to talk to a RDBMS (lets assume something like Microsoft SQL Server for now) I will need a ODBC driver or driver manager of some sort.
I'm failing to understand how the three components connect. I just want to gain a more abstract view before delving into this. I have a very long time to learn what I need to learn but am having lots of trouble starting.
1 - Do the ODBC drivers come with the RDBMS like SQL Server or is the ODBC driver specific to the programming language used such as C++ or Java.
2 - When I have build a GUI program (using say WX widgets) and compile it, does it incorporate the ODBC driver when I compile it or are the GUI App, OCBC driver and RDBMS all a separate application installed on one computer?
I know this is a very general question but I'm failing to understand some very basic concepts. If you can recommend a good book or some books to read which will prompt this understanding it would be very well appreciated. I've searched over several but not sure what to get. Lets assume I'll use C++ to build the application and SQL server as the RDBMS. Not sure about the ODBC driver though?
Thanks so much.