In Part 1 we started to develop a small racing game using XNA Game Studio Express 2.0. We learned about the game loop and how it's implemented by the XNA (by using the Update and Draw methods) framework. We also created our first track on the screen and four cars started moving on the ...

Maybe some of you remember a time when we created a sprite on a piece of graph paper and afterwards hacked zeroes and ones in so we could see something eventually move on a TV screen. I have to admit that those days have been gone for a long time and a lot of things have happened in IT...

In Part 1 we started to develop a small racing game using XNA Game Studio Express 2.0. We learned about the game loop and how it's implemented by the XNA (by using the Update and Draw methods) framework. We also created our first track on the screen and four cars started moving on the ...

Maybe some of you remember a time when we created a sprite on a piece of graph paper and afterwards hacked zeroes and ones in so we could see something eventually move on a TV screen. I have to admit that those days have been gone for a long time and a lot of things have happened in IT...

Most of the applications we software developers build need to interact somehow with data from a database. The .NET Framework defined by Microsoft provides a rich set of objects to manage database interaction; these classes are collectively referred to as ADO.NET and the latest versions...

Most of the applications we software developers build need to interact somehow with data from a database. The .NET Framework defined by Microsoft provides a rich set of objects to manage database interaction; these classes are collectively referred to as ADO.NET and the latest versions...

It's that time again - I was invited to be the guest editor for another issue of PBDJ. It's the second time now, and I want to say thank you to the many people who helped me a lot within the past year.

It's amazing how popular Sudoku has become in the last few months. You'll find one in nearly every daily magazine here in Austria. When I started to jump on this train (yes, I solve at least one Sudoku a day), I thought it would be amazing if we could have a version written completely ...

A week ago one of my customers asked me to do a presentation on Sybase DataWindow.NET. We discussed what they would like to see (besides all the standard stuff all PowerBuilder shops want to see, such as a Master/Detail DataWindow in a client/server environment and, in a second step, t...

Over the past few years, there have been a number of titles released on the Sybase enterprise database management system. Administrator's Guide to Sybase ASE 12.5, released late last year, was widely adopted by consultants, DBAs, and administrators of Sybase ASE.

An enterprise portal is the converged 'hub' of multiple, complementary information management solutions, including document and content management, information search and retrieval, knowledge management, team collaboration, workflow, and business intelligence.

This month we'll be looking at another book written by Jeff Garbus. This time the book is about Sybase ASE 12.5 systems administration and database administration, where systems administration is the function of installing, maintaining, operating, and controlling the Sybase ASE Server.

An enterprise portal is the converged 'hub' of multiple, complementary information management solutions, including document and content management, information search and retrieval, knowledge management, team collaboration, workflow, and business intelligence.

As a PowerBuilder developer I'm sure you have already used SQL Anywhere a few times, but did you know that SQL Anywhere owns over 70% of the mobile database market? This is because it's easy to use, easy to administer, and doesn't take up too much space.

An enterprise portal is the converged 'hub' of multiple, complementary information management solutions, including document and content management, information search and retrieval, knowledge management, team collaboration, workflow, and business intelligence.

As I'm writing this editorial I have to say I'm a bit nervous. Not because I'm writing my first column as a guest editor for this issue of PBDJ (though this is something special for me and I want to say thank you to the people who made this possible), it's because I'm preparing for the...

Sybase doesn't just offer PocketBuilder for mobile development. Last month, we talked about Afaria and Unwired Accelerator, what they're good for and how they might be used. This month we'll take a closer look at Unwired Accelerator, install it and build a simple example with it. No co...

One of my favorite PocketBuilder projects is an application that I started a long time ago, a TimeSheet application in which I can track the hours I spent on different client sites.

If you're starting to develop PocketBuilder applications, you'd probably like to see them on a real device, not only on the desktop or emulator, but which device to choose?

Last month I described the beginnings of my PBStock application, which I'm currently developing, but I didn't mention why I started to write this application. I wrote it because I was forced to try to get more for my money. It took awhile for me to understand that. You may realize it a...

You may already have invested some of your money in stocks or individual securities. You may have earned some money, or, as 90% of investors do, you may have lost some of your money.

Last year at this time we were building an MP3 player using PowerBuilder. This year I'd like to go one step further and use the latest available technologies and versions of the tools provided by Sybase to build an MP3 jukebox.

During the past few weeks when I was doing some Pocket PowerBuilder presentations and classes here in Europe, I came across the same problem several times: How can users keep their data synchronized between their mobile devices and the rest of the enterprise? As we shall see, there are...

As you may already know, Pocket Outlook is an application for managing diaries and commitments and it's included with all Pocket PC devices. From the beginning the Pocket Outlook tools, such as Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks, which you'll also find within the (flash) ROM of your device,...

You may have already heard that PowerBuilder 10 will allow developers to use plugins. The first plugin offered will be PowerDesigner 10. Yes, we will be able to use PowerDesigner within our beloved PowerBuilder IDE. This may be the first step and we may see a lot more plugins follow on...

I remember quite well the first time I started developing database applications. Back then I had heard a lot of different terms and names that I didn't understand, and I wasn't courageous enough to ask what those terms meant (yes, I was very young and shy). Now, several years later, ev...

Today, the Internet has become a medium through which most people can connect. With the increasing number of users, the number of Web applications has also increased. Most of us PowerBuilder developers have already started or at least tried to write JSP pages and servlets that are runn...

Pocket PowerBuilder and the upcoming version 10 of PowerBuilder are Unicode versions. But what does this mean? What is Unicode and why do we need it? This is what I'll discuss this month. But be warned, the main body of the Unicode standard is over 1,000 pages long, counting indexes an...

This month we'll do a bit of hands-on training on the warehouse solution provided by Sybase, so find an installation CD of this product immediately. Since Sybase doesn't offer an evaluation version, call your sales rep for a copy.

Your company decides to implement a mobile application initiative and has chosen which database, handheld, and software packages to use. A new year has begun and new projects will be started, so now is the time to think about what we are doing, what our jobs are, and how we understand ...

I'm sure many of you have experienced the same problems within your company as I've experienced at my work these past few months. We have a single database server serving every part of our information processing community within our company, from transaction to batch processing to anal...

A long time ago, after I had finished school and worked as a C++ developer, I started programming with PowerBuilder. I was not one of the best database developers; in fact, I was more than happy to create DataWindows without a Cartesian product. But over the years I learned a lot and l...

While writing one of my PowerBuilder 9 book chapters, I suddenly had an idea. Wouldn't it be great to use PowerBuilder as a WAP front end?

In contrast with Rob Verschoor's previous book, The Complete Sybase ASE Quick Reference Guide, his new book, Tips, Tricks & Recipes for Sybase ASE, is a full-size book filled with a lot information that ASE administrators and ASE developers will find useful.

I've heard it many times: training in general (not only Sybase classes) is so expensive. I agree, but believe me, it's worth every cent (I'll just be discussing the Sybase classes in this article).

One cool feature in Pocket PowerBuilder is that you can include functionality that's not provided by the tool: accessing the Windows CE Application Programming Interface (WinCE API).

In this article I'll show you how to play MP3 files with your own 'sound machine' written in PowerBuilder. But before we start to implement it, you should first understand what MP3 is.

It won't be long until a new product developed by Sybase hits the stores. Yes, I'm talking about Pocket PowerBuilder. For any professional (PowerBuilder) software developer, this should be reason enough to look behind the scenes of mobile and wireless development.

Have you ever looked at a rainbow and wondered how all the colors got there? Or wondered why grass looks green and your jeans blue? Well, if you sit in front of your computer as often as I do, you might not.

Okay, I know you're already familiar with the PowerBuilder IDE. Yes, you're one of those people who knows where to find the system tree and how to turn it off. And you already know what the clip window is for (if you don't, look at it, it's a pretty cool feature - we used it in our 7-y...