In that case, yes, there are such implementations around. Martijn
mentioned a few, and I mentioned the Pike one, all of which do indeed
bypass libpq and talk directly to the server. It is, as I understand
it, an open and stable protocol, so it's no different from writing a
program that connects to port 25 and talks SMTP rather than dropping
to sendmail.
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I downloaded PIKE. The "PostgreSQL direct network module for Pike", pgsql.pike (and the other modules), shows how it was done.
Many thanks for the tip. I rarely step out of Delphi, so I was unaware of the power and versatility of Pike. The Sql.pmod reveals the other databases to which you can connect.
I think any PostGreSQL user or programmer ought to try Pike.
jt