The idea of a common API linking heterogeneous OLAP clients and servers is seductive, but it is very hard to achieve. OLAP tools do not share a common language like SQL, and they don't even have a standard data model (aficionados can identify several incompatible classes and subclasses of multidimensional structures).
The OLAP Council's feeble attempt to create an OLAP standard has proved to
be even less successful than Esperanto's bid to be the universal human language. Yet again it seems that the only hope for a real standard is for one strong vendor's API to emerge as the de facto industry standard. Microsoft's OLE DB for OLAP (code-named Tensor) is the leading candidate for this role because all vendors of client tools have already signed up to support it. This is attracting other server vendors who want links to a good range of client tools. Oracle, and probably both Arbor/IBM and Informix, will resist until market pressure forces compliance.
Flexible C++
Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it
is
theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.
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OLAP APIs
