Lost in the shuffle of setting up a database server is the question of getting data in and out of it. Usually, the need for a database comes from an application, but how do developer's get to that database?

How you get to the database largely depends upon your needs and toolset. At the most basic is the C API found in libpq, as provided by PostgreSQL. From there, the choices are many. For Java applications, the distribution has a JDBC driver. There are several commercial and open source ODBC options as well. But what about a toolkit for the Cocoa developer? There are a couple of options there as well.

For the Objective-C developer, we have our own answer. PGSQLKit is a framework for the Cocoa development environment. This is an Objective-C framework written with the intent of being Cocoa like, but also readily approachable by the developer familiar with JDBC, .Net or Microsoft's ADO API's. This framework also adheres to our 'GenDB' specification which allows a Cocoa developer to drop in replace a PGSQLKit framework with ODBCKit or in the future our TDSKit and others as we expand the platform.

Licensing

One of the questions that is most often asked is licensing. The short version is that while the PGSQLKit is not Public Domain, it is as close as a license can get. It is a BSD style license, that grants you to redistribute it provided you keep the original copyright on with it. It further states that our name may not be used to endorse any product built using it. Other than that, have at it. The intent has always been to provide a toolkit to make it easier to build PostgreSQL based applications on the Mac. This is not a multi-page legal contract. It is short and to the point. So short and to the point that we have included it, in it's entirety. below.

Copyright (c) 2005-2011, Druware Software Designs
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in binary forms, with or without modification, are 
permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, 
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation 
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2. Neither the name of the Druware Software Designs nor the names of its 
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this 
software without specific prior written permission.

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