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`!Data Access Language for the Macintosh`!, or simply `!DAL`!, was a `F33f`_`[SQL`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=SQL]`_`f-like language and `F33f`_`[application programming interface`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Application_programming_interface]`_`f released by `F33f`_`[Apple Computer`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Apple_Computer]`_`f in 1990 to provide unified `F33f`_`[client/server`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Client/server]`_`f access to `F33f`_`[database management systems`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Database_management_system]`_`f. It was known for poor performance and high costs, something Apple did little to address over its short lifetime, before it was sold off in 1994. DAL is used as the native SQL dialect of the `F33f`_`[PrimeBase`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=PrimeBase]`_`f SQL server, as well as the now-defunct `F33f`_`[Butler SQL`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Butler_SQL]`_`f.

>>Contents

• `F0af`_`[History`#history]`_`f

• `F0af`_`[Description`#description]`_`f

• `F0af`_`[Servers and clients`#servers-and-clients]`_`f

• `F0af`_`[References`#references]`_`f

-─

>>History

DAL started as a 3rd-party product, `!CL/1`! (`*Connectivity Language One`*), from a small vendor, Network Innovations. Apple purchased the company in 1988,`:cite-ref-1[`F5bf`_`[1`#cite-note-1]`_`f] during a time that client/server databases were becoming a hot issue in the industry. They released their first version of the re-branded software in 1989, for `F33f`_`[MVS`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=MVS]`_`f, and followed with other versions over the next year or so.

DAL suffered from most Apple problems of the early 1990s, notably an alternating level of support in which Apple would aggressively promote the product and then ignore it. Throughout, the company struggled with promoting the system as a cross-platform standard, or as a Mac-only technology.`:cite-ref-2[`F5bf`_`[2`#cite-note-2]`_`f] DAL's release was also coincident with Apple's fall from grace in the business world, and not coincidentally with `F33f`_`[Microsoft`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Microsoft]`_`f's `F33f`_`[ODBC`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=ODBC]`_`f efforts.

DAL appears to have seen little use, and eventually Apple sold it to Independence Technologies in 1994, during a sell-off of a number of "high-end" packages such as their `F33f`_`[X.400`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=X.400]`_`f server and an `F33f`_`[SNA`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Systems_Network_Architecture]`_`f client.`:cite-ref-3[`F5bf`_`[3`#cite-note-3]`_`f] Independence Technologies was a `F33f`_`[middleware`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Middleware]`_`f vendor, better known as a major reseller of the `F33f`_`[Tuxedo`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Tuxedo_(software)]`_`f product for `F33f`_`[Unix`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Unix]`_`f. In 1995 `F33f`_`[BEA Systems`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=BEA_Systems]`_`f bought the company, and in turn sold it to `F33f`_`[UniPrise Systems`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=UniPrise_Systems]`_`f in late 1996. No releases took place during this period.

>>Description

Like Oracle's `F33f`_`[PL/SQL`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=PL/SQL]`_`f or Microsoft's `F33f`_`[Transact-SQL`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Transact-SQL]`_`f, DAL is essentially an extended version of SQL supporting basic query functionality and adding clean syntax for cursor operations, logic, and loops.

When sent a command, early versions of Apple's DAL interpreter broke down the statement and re-built it into subqueries for the underlying data sources. This translation took place on the `F33f`_`[server-side`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Server-side]`_`f, just like PL/SQL and Transact-SQL, but required a fairly expensive "adaptor" program of often dubious performance. This adaptor made DAL considerably less appealing than later systems like `F33f`_`[ODBC`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=ODBC]`_`f, where the translation normally takes place on the client side and is typically included for free with the `F33f`_`[database engine`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Database_engine]`_`f. The downside to the ODBC approach is that, theoretically at least, more network bandwidth is used up to pull the "raw data" to the client machine for processing back into a standard format.

On the client end, DAL was originally accessed directly through a `F33f`_`[system extension`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Extension_(Mac_OS)]`_`f (named simply "DAL" in System 7), but it was later rolled into a single ODBC-like driver layer, the `F33f`_`[Data Access Manager`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Data_Access_Manager]`_`f (DAM). DAM was ODBC-like in concept, but did not include the SQL layers, it was strictly a system for sending "opaque" queries and receiving result sets. DAM also included the concept of a "query document" that allowed the DAL (or other) queries to be written in an `F33f`_`[authoring system`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Authoring_system]`_`f and then easily used in any client application.

>>Servers and clients

One of the more common clients for DAM was `F33f`_`[HyperCard`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=HyperCard]`_`f. The combination of HyperCard and DAL presented a serious challenge to existing vendors who could offer nothing with a GUI. Apple gave a series of demos of HyperCard/DAL, and soon `F33f`_`[Oracle Corporation`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Oracle_Corporation]`_`f purchased a HyperCard-clone, `F33f`_`[PLUS`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=WinPlus]`_`f from `F33f`_`[Spinnaker Software`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Spinnaker_Software]`_`f, to produce `F33f`_`[Oracle Card`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Oracle_Card]`_`f.

For much of the 1990s a direct-DAL database server was available on the Macintosh, `F33f`_`[Butler SQL`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Butler_SQL]`_`f. However, like any server software on the "classic" Mac OS, Butler was seriously hampered by the Mac's single-user `F33f`_`[file system`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=File_system]`_`f and limited `F33f`_`[multitasking`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Computer_multitasking]`_`f and could never really deliver the sort of performance the same server would have on `F33f`_`[Windows NT`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Windows_NT]`_`f or `F33f`_`[Unix`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=Unix]`_`f.

The `F33f`_`[PrimeBase`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=PrimeBase]`_`f division of German software developer SNAP Innovation GmbH continues to support DAL in their cross platform SQL database server (originally known as P.INK SQL). Their extended version of DAL is called PrimeBaseTalk (PBT) and is fully backward compatible with DAL. Their architecture does not include Data Access Manager and the resulting performance gains are considerable.

IBM made available a DAL Server for the `F33f`_`[AS/400 platform`:/page/Livres et Wiki/entry.mu`zim=wikipedia_en_all_nopic_2025-08.zim|entry_path=IBM_i]`_`f in 1995.`:cite-ref-4[`F5bf`_`[4`#cite-note-4]`_`f]

>>References

`:cite-note-1`!1.`! `F0af`_`[↑`#cite-ref-1]`_`f "Apple Acquires Network Innovations", `*Wheels for the Mind`*, Boston College, 1988

`:cite-note-2`!2.`! `F0af`_`[↑`#cite-ref-2]`_`f Jeff Moad, "Apple Says Yes to SQL", `*Datamation`*, 1990

`:cite-note-3`!3.`! `F0af`_`[↑`#cite-ref-3]`_`f "Apple Divests Data Access Language, SNAps, take Bedrock", `*Computer Business Review`*, 26 January 1994

`:cite-note-4`!4.`! `F0af`_`[↑`#cite-ref-4]`_`f IBM AS/400 Client Series End User Products, IBM

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