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MDAC 2.1



Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) is what GEMS uses to communicate with its database.  Microsoft upgrades these drivers from time to time, and has released MDAC 2.1.  Information about MDAC can be found here
 
The MDAC 2.1 drivers shipping with GEMS 1.10.1+ CDs include a new major release of the Jet database engine.  Previously we were running Jet 3.5; the new version is 4.0.  4.0 is the same engine used in with Microsoft's recently released Office 2000. 
 
The database format (.mdb) changed with 4.0.  Previous .mdb files will continue to work as expected, but you might get better performance if you dump and load old databases after upgrading to Jet 4.0. 
 
The latest MDAC drivers are now in the GEMSFix directory.  The file is quite large (8+ meg).  New GEMS CDs always ship with the latest drivers, but you might want to upgrade MDAC if you feel better running the latest drivers from MS, and you have been upgrading GEMS by ftp for a long time. 
 
We don't know of any specific problems with the old drivers that affect GEMS, so don't feel obligated to upgrade.  I just wanted to make everyone aware of the change.
 
Ken
 
 
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