[Libreoffice] Adabas D client library

[Francois Tigeot]

Hi,

The Adabas client library (libadabas.so on Unix systems) has recently come
to my attention.

It is only build on a hardcoded list of platforms, creating an artificial
difference in the list of installed files depending on the operating system
or cpu.

I investigated a bit, and found out the following:

- a crippled edition of the Adabas database engine, Adabas D, was bundled
  with old versions of StarOffice. I'm not 100% sure but it seems the last
  version it was bundled with was StarOffice 7, back in 2004.
  StarOffice 7 was based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.

- the Adabas D product is still available as a freeware and can be
  downloaded from www.softwareag.com.
  The installation process is painful and can not be really expected to be
  done by your average end-user.
  The platforms the latest binaries do run on do not match the hardcoded list
  in LibreOffice sourcecode.

- I could not post on the OpenOffice.org forums (seems like the account
  creation process does not work anymore) so I had to rely on the archives.
  Most of the end-users posting about Adabas D were confused and could not
  understand why the option to use it was available on their OpenOffice
  installation even though it required a separate download from a third party.
  The only software compatibility option they were interested in was with
  Microsoft Access.

- Most companies which were using Adabas I've heard of in the last few days
  are migrating to other database systems (MySQL and PostgreSQL) or have
  already done so.


My first goal here is to get rid of the hardcoded list of platforms enabling
the Adabas driver to be build.
I'd like to enable it everywhere or disable it everywhere.

In light of my recent findings, I have become convinced Adabas D is not used
and will not be in the future.

We could kill two birds with one stone by simply disabling the build of this
library.

I have no strong opinion on the code itself; someone suggested we could keep
it as a database driver example.

Thoughts ?

-- 
Francois Tigeot