tiny_tds v3

[andyundso]

I have a couple of ideas for a potential v3 release of tiny_tds. However, I did not work that much on code so far and also not sure if this is the direction that the project wants to take, so consider this issue a proposal.

Potential content of the release:

• Drop support for older Ruby versions
  • I personally would drop everything until Ruby 3.1 (v3 wouldn't be released before end of March anyhow, and Ruby 3.0 is EOL after March 2024)
  • Otherwise, Rails 6.1 is still supported, which requires Ruby 2.5 at least, so dropping support for all versions below 2.5 could also be an option.
• Drop the 32-bit Windows build.
  • It is currently untested on CI, which is a potential risk.
  • v2.1.6 had 150 downloads for it (1200 for the 64-bit version), v2.1.7 95 so far (415 for the 64-bit version), so I would say demand for it is quite low.
• Bump the dependencies for the precompiled Windows version.
  • If possible, we could move to OpenSSL v3 when updating FreeTDS.
• Drop support for older MSSQL versions
  • Microsoft has two support models: Mainstream and Extended.
  • I think we should drop support for versions where extended support has been discontinued.
• Instead of returning false when something went wrong with the query, throw an exception.
  • Throwing an error is much more clear than false and v3 is the best time to do so.

Again, these are just a couple of ideas. I also read through #511 which suggest a new implementation based on the .NET client, but I personally would not like installing a .NET runtime for my Ruby project.

What do you think @aharpervc?

[aharpervc]

Sounds good, especially changing the return false thing... absurd. I'd also like to consider refactoring how escape is called, so that a live connection object isn't required (maybe a class method, or maybe decoupling init & connect).