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1) DB admin features - PostgreSQL 2) DB developer features - PostgreSQL / FireBird 3) Encryption, and ... speed - InterBase. On many tests IB outperforms FB, at least. 4) Mobile platforms - InterBase 5) Change Views is unique InterBase feature If to put SQLite into this list, then if you does not need multi-user access, scalability, DB is relatively small, then SQLite is the right way. If something from this list is not true, or may become false in future, then not SQLite. In order of descending preferences - SQLite, IbToGo / Firebird embedded, PostgreSQL

For projects with local database, I would go for sqlite as it doesn't require a DB server.

"A Shell link is a data object that contains information used to access another object in the Shell's namespace": Read the whole definition here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/links I was searching for a Delphi VCL library allowing me to easily create a Shell-Link with all properties described in the Microsoft documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/shobjidl_core/nn-shobjidl_core-ishelllinkw I found a lot of libraries for this purpose, but most of them were outdated or had some flaws or bugs. Most of the libraries lacked the feature to create a Shell-Link with a Hotkey. The ShellBrowser Delphi VCL Library from JamSoftware contains a method to easily create a Shell-Link: https://www.jam-software.com/shellbrowser_delphi/index.shtml Unfortunately, it has no easy method to configure the properties (especially the hotkey property) of the newly created Shell-Link. Fortunately, the above mentioned Microsoft documentation provides all the information to succeed in the task: I use a standard THotKey control in the UI to allow the user to configure a hotkey for the newly created Shell-Link: The THotKey control has these main properties - HotKey and Modifiers: So the whole process of creating the Shell-Link with the Hotkey properties can be achieved with these steps: 1. Get the ItemIdList of the created Link: 2. Provide the IShellLink Interface of the ItemIdList: 3. Declare the IPersistFile interface for the Shell-Link file: 4. Now we need (as mentioned in the Microsoft documentation) to store the virtual key code in the low-order byte and the modifier flags in the high-order byte of the Shell-Link Hotkey property. For this purpose we declare a record containing two byte-fields: Then we get the Hotkey from the THotKey control, assign it to the record and typecast the record to a Word: But the Modifiers value is still missing from the record. So next, we get the Modifier-keys from the THotKey control and assign them to the Modifier Byte of the record: Now we can assign the record (again typecasted to a Word) to the Shell-Link interface: 5. The other Shell-Link properties are easy to set and are explained in the Microsoft documentation. 6. In the last step we can now save the configured Shell-Link: You can download the source code and learn from its implementation: ShellLinkShortcutTest.zip Here is a compiled exe demo of the program: ShellLinkShortcutTest_CompiledExeDemo.zip To compile the source code yourself you need the ShellBrowser library. You can download a free trial version here: https://customers.jam-software.de/shellbrowser_delphi/download.shtml?language=EN The many other features of the ShellBrowser library are explained here: https://www.jam-software.com/shellbrowser_delphi/features.shtml I am not affiliated with JamSoftware, but I recommend the ShellBrowser library as an excellent product. I wish you a lot of fun with this demo!

If you only check for those 2 alternatives and only windows target my heart say Firebird as Dany Marmur I had no problem with since first version. if you want some encrypted column the choice is Interbase (native column encryption). Now if your targets are multi os, till now i don't access directly to Firebird database (client/server) on Android with Firedac but it works with IBDac. I don't test an embedded version of the database though. So for multi-os I certainly will choose IB keeping in mind Firebird . But if your project is not a multi-user one i vote for SQLite avoiding all database server deployment

Amen! https://killedbygoogle.com/