So you'd like to write or modify a dbstreams::provider class. Wonderful! This manual is meant for you. It describes the purpose and role of the provider class, and defines its interface. It does not describe any particular provider. Rather, it describes — prescribes, really — what a provider must do and be.
This is a normative document. That is, it defines how a provider is supposed to behave, what a dbstream expects of it, and what information about the underlying native library it is allowed or required to expose. While the source code of other providers — and of dbstreams — will tell you how something works, it won't tell you much about requirements and expectations. Thus this manual.
The manual is divided into two parts. Part 1 describes the provider's design in terms of dbstreams: what it does, why it exists, how it's used. Part 2 describes each provider functions. A provider that implements the whole interface can be substituted for any other provider.
You are reading revision 1.5, current as of 2008/04/05. The latest revision can be found at http://www.schemamania.org/dbstreams/doc/.
And now, on with the show.