In the real world, differences in drivers and the level of ODBC support lessens the potential of ODBC:
| Access, Delphi, and Visual Basic all support ODBC directly. |
| Under C++, such as Visual C++, you can use the C++ ODBC API. |
| In Visual C++, you can use the CRecordSet class, which wraps the ODBC API set within an MFC 4.2 class. This is the easiest route if you are doing Windows C++ development under Windows NT. |
If I write an app for Postgres can I write it using ODBC calls to the Postgres server, or is that only when another database program like MS SQL Server or Access needs to access the data?
Again, the ODBC API set is the way to go. You can find out more at Microsoft's web site or in your Visual C++ docs (if that's what you are using.)
Visual Basic and the other RAD tools have Recordset objects that use ODBC directly to access data. Using the data-aware controls, you can quickly link to the ODBC back end database (very quickly).
Playing around with MS Access will help you sort this out. Try using File->Get External Data
Tip: You'll have to set up a DSN first.