It is helpfull if the installed SQLDBC version is unknown. The version check can be only done after loading the SQLDBC library. Applications may be linked linked agains the static library libSQLDBC77Sup stub and the shared library libSQLDBC[76]. All of the described methodes of this SDK version will be available and can be called but if an older SQLDBC library is used some of them will will return an error. Using the support library in conjunction with the libSQLDBC76 of this SDK will modify the behavior for of the SQLDBC_FEATURE_CONNECTION_FEATURES, SQLDBC_FEATURE_METADATA_SCHEMATABLE, SQLDBC_FEATURE_METADATA_COLUMNLABEL, SQLDBC_FEATURE_STATEMENT_GETCONNECTION. All of this features doesn't exsist within SQLDBC libraries < 7.6.04 if an older version is used the functions getConnectionFeatures, getSchemaName and getColumnLabel will return SQLDBC_NOT_OK. The methode getConnection will return a NULL pointer reference. Using the support library in conjuction with an 7.7 SQLDBC library it also enables the setKeepAlive methode of the SQLDBC_LOB class for LOB locators.