Possibilities of PowerBuilder 12

I'm a .NET developer, and I heard that since release 12 PowerBuilder enhanced integration with .NET.开发者_运维问答 What are the advantages of using Sybase PowerBuilder over normal WPF programming techniques and so on?

When is it recommended to use Sybase PowerBuilder?

First advantage to using PowerBuilder has always been and probably will always be the DataWindow. With it, you get advantages like:

• Develop once to get a scrollable single/multi-row user interface and a printable report (WPF takes the edge off this advantage, but I think the DataWindow still takes it)
• Expression-based, row-by-row-evaluated attribute definition (e.g. bold a salary if it exceeds the salary on the row before, show teaching_assistant only if the dept is "Education", etc...)
• Logical record locking
• SQL injection attack prevention
• Dynamic UI and/or report generation based on a SQL statement
• DBMS portability
• Handling of identity values
• Disk caching
• Conversion of database errors to events
• Ability to monitor, intercept, modify or cancel SQL at run time
• Ability to export data or user interface to many formats
• New in 12, it allows you to bind any WPF control to a column in the DataWindow's data set

The other big thing that has been promoted as an advantage is the fact that you can use visual inheritance. So, you can create a control ("standard user object") and place it on multiple windows or canvases ("custom user objects") and override the attribute at the descendant level. Then, you can later go back and change an attribute on the ancestor "standard user object" (e.g. change your font standard), and changes will propagate to all places that user object is used, assuming the changed attribute isn't overridden at the descendant level. I like the attribute inheritance, but not as much as I like the method inheritance. For example, with method inheritance, coding in one place I can immediately distribute a new control behaviour universally to my application (e.g. in WPF, maybe I could give my buttons a throbbing red glow whenever they are moused over... or, in good taste, maybe not). Or, I can load up optional functionality in the ancestor and make it available to all the descendants immediately.

At the time of this writing, these are still early days for PB12, so maybe new advantages will come out as people use them. I reserve the right to come back and rewrite my history.

Good luck,

Terry.

Due to my work, I have been using PowerBuilder for 1 year and these are my conclusions:

• Ok, PowerBuilder is a profitable product. This is because there is a lot of legacy code from jurassic projects, like software for banks, hospitals,... nobody starts a new project using PB and companies don't want to hear anything about migrations.
• I think it is a great thing that PB 12 let you implement applications using .NET. But this is nothing nice about PowerBuilder, it is about .NET. Good news for PB programmers, maybe now they learn a more useful programing language.
• The Datawindow is just a sql solution with a few operations implemented, basically select, insert, update a few other things. Maybe 15 years ago it was great, but now it is nothing special.
• The libraries are minimal, you have to implement a lot of functionality that is built-in in other languages.
• PB doesn't have frameworks, so the projects have been growing for years and years with no control. They use to be monsters in terms of size and coupling.
• This makes code maintenance a nightmare.
• Salaries could be good, but remember that probably your experience with PowerBuilder will not help so much in the future, case you want to change your job or you need to.

Because of those and more experiences, I recommend you not to spend any time trying to learn PB if it is not strictly necessary. Just use the PowerBuilder .NET IDE that PB 12 gives you.

Haha, "Hans Passant" and "Night Shade" sounds like they have "productivity envy."

Sure you can code in third-generation programming languages like C# or Python.... and roll with the architectural changes that Microsoft constantly dictate, or you can also use a tool like PowerBuilder which has historically provided software developers one of the most productive platforms available by shielding us from the pervasive underlying OS APIs and, ugghh endless layers of architecture....

Hmmmm... maybe that's why Microsoft was one of PowerBuilder's first users!

There's also a reason why Sybase as a company has been growing by leaps and bounds. Can you say mobile database market share?

But then again I am speaking of real-world economics. What can you deliver and how long will it take. PowerBuilder wins, hands down.

In theory, sure, there are other tools that offer more in some perspectives, but in a practical manner, particularly with large enterprise database systems, there is hardly a tool that can make the same claim as PowerBuilder.

Some of the clients? Most state governments, Southwest airlines, the nation of Canada, etc.

Oh, and we make more in salary as well.

:)