ODB is an object-relational mapping (ORM) system for C++. It provides tools, APIs, and library support that allow you to persist C++ objects to a relational database (RDBMS) without having to deal with tables, columns, or SQL and without manually writing any of the mapping code. For more information see: http://www.codesynthesis.com/products/odb/ This package contains the pre-compiled binary distribution of the ODB compiler for Windows. The top-level directory structure of this package is as follows: bin\ ODB compiler binary etc\ ODB compiler configuration doc\ ODB system documentation man\ man pages for the ODB compiler mingw\ GCC compiler, MinGW, and MSYS binaries, see manifest inside for details To install this package simply unpack it into a directory of your choice, for example C:\tools. The ODB compiler binary will be in the bin\ directory inside the package directory, for example C:\tools\odb-x.y.z-i686-windows\bin\. You can run the ODB compiler by either using the absolute path, for example: C:\tools\odb-x.y.z-i686-windows\bin\odb --version Or you can add the bin\ directory to the Path environment variable. To accomplish this, open Control Panel, then System, select the Advanced tab and click on the Environment Variables button. If you have administrator privileges, select the Path variable from the System variables list. Otherwise, select (or create) the Path variable from the User variables list. Click the Edit button and add the bin\ directory to the list. Click Ok, then log off and log on again for the changes to take effect. Once this is done, you should be able to run the ODB compiler by using just its name, for example: odb --version If you would like to add commonly-used libraries, such as Boost or Qt, to the ODB compiler header search list, you can add them to the etc\odb\default.options file (this file serves a similar purpose in ODB as the VC++ Directories dialog in VC++). For more information, refer to the instructions at the beginning of this file. Note also that while you can move the ODB compiler directory around, you cannot move the individual sub-directories or files inside it. For example, copying the ODB compiler executable to C:\Windows will not work. Send questions, bug reports, or any other feedback to the odb-users@codesynthesis.com mailing list.