Are there any good reason why to use native api instead of ODBC ?

[Boris shtrasman]

Hi ,

Today I chatted with an experienced person and we had our
disagreements between database types and an interesting issue rose up
about using Native Api or ODBC ,
from what I experienced in the last years I can't find any good reason
why not use ODBC:

Pro:
1. using ODBC is more prone to api change.
2. it is easier (I think) to maintain ODBC based code , I've seen code
based with more then  15 years and it is still maintainable,  and the
code stores db back compatibility (from SQL 2000 to SQL 2010).
3. didn't find any indication for performance penalty more then 10%
(didn't see that just found this number in a written benchmark a
fellow did few years ago).
4. don't violate GPL if your using a driver and just using the DB as
storage backed (*IANAL).

so as long you stick to good SQL (ANSI) code your pretty safe (yes I
know that the dbs have wonderful extensions the problem they have the
tendency to change api and not support what the others have)

But I'm pretty sure there situation when you should avoid using ODBC
(the problem I don't what they are).

Do you have any suggestions when should I use native api instead of ODBC ?