In case you, like many people, were mystified by the recent announcement of
SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Release
Candidate 1 (RC1), it might help to know
that SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition is
essentially SQL Server Everywhere Edition
renamed. In fact, this SQL Server Compact
Edition naming thing gets rather complicated because SQL Server 2000 Windows
CE Edition (SQL Server CE), SQL Server
2005 Mobile Edition, SQL Server 2005
Everywhere Edition, and SQL Server 2005
Compact Edition are all essentially the same
product. The confusing array of names has
made it difficult to keep up with what the
product is all about. The last iteration of this
product, SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition, was the most confusing of all because
of its name’s similarity to Sybase’s SQL
Anywhere mobile database application. ISVs
and other partners understandably found the
SQL Server Everywhere and SQL Anywhere
names too similar, so Microsoft renamed its
lightweight database SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition.
SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition’s
true nature is a single-user database application. However, its SQL Server CE and
SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition heritage
can lead people to think that the Compact
Edition is limited to mobile devices. That’s
not the case. The RC1 release can run on
mobile devices and the usual Windows
platform. It’s also important to understand
that the new edition is entirely different
from SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.
SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition is a
single-user database that runs as an application and uses a stripped-down version of
the SQL Server database engine as its core.
For device compatibility, the product uses
a small 5MB memory footprint, and it can
support databases up to 4GB. In contrast,
the SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is a multi-user database that uses a SQL Server
engine database core and runs as a service.
So after all of the name changes, you
might wonder whether the SQL Server
2005 Compact Edition is a new edition
in name only. But the new name was only
one change in the new edition; Microsoft
also added a variety of new functions. For
example, the platform supports Windows
2000, adding to the Windows Mobile and
Windows XP support in the preceding SQL
Server 2005 Everywhere Edition. Microsoft also made a number of other minor
enhancements to the product, including
desktop performance enhancements, Windows Vista support, DataDirectory support
for the SqlCeConnection object, integration
with Visual Studio, and support for SQL
Server Compact Edition in SQL Server
Management Studio in the upcoming
release of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack
2 (SP2). Like it’s predecessor, SQL Server
2005 Everywhere Edition, the Compact
Edition is localized in 20 different languages.
Notably, it still doesn’t support stored procedures. SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition is
a free download that you can get at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=85E0C3CE-3FA1-453A-8CE9-AF6CA20946C3&displaylang=en.
SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition should
mark the end of the naming merry-go-round for this mobile- and desktop-oriented
member of the SQL Server product family.
At least we can all hope this is the case. For
more information about the SQL Server 2005
Compact Edition, see the product’s home page
at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/compact/default.mspx.
End of Article
