Can some \one please help ?

I am writing  a simple Delphi program which  has to read a db table
using SQL.
I don't need to use db controls; the program interprets the data records
internally and displays results. The tables will be read only.

This is a standalone single user application. It must also be portable.
i.e I can take a copy of the delphi program and the database file to a
different pc and it will run.

Looking at the Delphi 2.0 doco/help there seems to be a wide choice of
tools to do the job. BDE,  Local InterBase, Database Desktop.

My questions are:-

1. Which tools do I use to create a db with my tables. ? (I have managed
to create a .gdb file and import my data to a table - but don't know if
this is the way to go.)

2. Once I've created the db, how do I access it from Delphi 2.0 ?

I have spent several hours poring over the help files etc and finally
gave up when my Delphi program fell over with an unhandled exception
during a call to dbiInit.
(Should I even be making this call, I ask myself!)

Any help/pointers in the right direction will be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance