By Bruce Armstrong  One of the main issues that PowerBuilder and PowerBuilder developers have been facing for the last few years is the lack of mind share for the product. All that seems to have changed with Sybase’s announcement of the beta of PowerBuilder 12.0. Articles on the release appeared in a larg... Nov. 11, 2009 12:15 PM EST Reads: 418 |
By Bruce Armstrong  PowerBuilder fans have been sharing code with one another since...well at least since the beginning days of CompuServe in the early 1990s. When PowerBuilder users gathered in just a single section in a general interest programming forum, we had an associated file library section, and w... Aug. 20, 2009 08:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,467 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  The PowerBuilder 12.0 beta has officially started (http://response.sybase.com/forms/WW09JULPB12beta1). It’s pretty hard to overstate the magnitude of the changes that are taking place within PowerBuilder for this version. As a result, it’s more important than ever for as many people as... Aug. 20, 2009 07:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,102 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Back in 2002, Sybase announced their four-phase approach toward adding .NET support to PowerBuilder. Phase 1 was the implementation of web services in PB9 and Phase 2 was the release of DataWindow.NET, which was packaged with PB 10. Phases 3 and 4 were the more significant phases. In P... Aug. 19, 2009 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 4,263 |
By Bruce Armstrong  There’s been a lot of discussion among the .NET folks recently about the magnitude of the changes that are being introduced in the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) in .NET 4.0. See, for example, “Windows Workflow Changes Direction” by Kathleen Dollard. It’s just another anecdote that b... Jul. 2, 2009 12:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,437 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  First, I should explain what I’m referring to. Sybase recently announced that the format of TechWave will be significantly different in 2009 than it has been for the last 10 years. Jun. 8, 2009 06:30 PM EDT Reads: 824 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Actually, the new IDE doesn’t arrive until next year. But I thought we could start talking about it now. In case you didn’t make TechWave, any of the PB 11.5 road shows or webcasts, you may not know what’s planned for PowerBuilder 12.0. There’s a lot that they’re talking about already ... May. 13, 2009 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,458 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Back in March of 2004, Eric Lippert of Microsoft explained in his “Fabulous Adventures In Coding” blog how Microsoft divides the developer community into three groups, each which is designated by a personality. Apparently, this is a practice recommended by Geoffrey Moore in “Crossing t... Apr. 21, 2009 05:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,217 |
By Bruce Armstrong  I've been reading "The Future of Management" by Gary Hamel lately. I have a staff of nine developers and, while I believe I'm a pretty good manager, I also believe there is always room for improvement. So I try to keep my eyes and ears open for ways to improve, and reading this book am... Feb. 12, 2009 04:12 PM EST Reads: 1,270 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Once again I thought this was one of the best TechWaves in years. Better than last year's, which was good. Having my laptop crash on me when I'm scheduled to do four sessions wasn't pleasant and took the edge off of it for me. Otherwise, it might have been a real blast. Location – I'm ... Nov. 16, 2008 12:22 PM EST Reads: 603 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Particularly in a means of moving PowerBuilder applications to the web. What I’m looking for doesn’t require a server license or the installation of unmanaged code to the web server, and works well across different browsers (not just Internet Explorer). The WPF DataWindow will help mov... Nov. 12, 2008 04:30 PM EST Reads: 3,149 |
By Bruce Armstrong  As in prior years, the first thing I'll cover is what has changed (assuming that you attended in the past few years). We're back at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Near as I can tell, if you have to be in Las Vegas, this is the place to be. About the only complaint I had last year was t... Nov. 12, 2008 04:02 PM EST Reads: 1,122 |
By Bruce Armstrong  The PowerBuilder 11.5 beta is officially opened. If you're at all interested in upgrading, particularly to improve the "eye-candy" aspect of your applications, now is the time to get involved. If you wait until after the product has been released and find that there are some key compon... Aug. 26, 2008 01:20 PM EDT Reads: 2,535 |
By Bruce Armstrong  The first is Borland. Originally known for their development tools (e.g., Delphi, JBuilder, C++ Builder), in February of 2006 Borland announced they were planning to sell off the Development Tools Group so that they could focus on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) product offering... Aug. 7, 2008 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,025 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  If that doesn't ring a bell, it's from the Reagan / Carter debates in the 1980 election cycle. Carter had presented a string of criticisms of Reagan's positions, which Reagan pretty much dismissed with that statement. Back in the heyday of client/server development, the folks at Borlan... Jun. 12, 2008 04:15 AM EDT Reads: 6,826 Replies: 3 |
By Bruce Armstrong  I received an e-mail from a loyal reader recently complaining that the magazine was no longer 'primarily about PowerBuilder.' The charge is actually true and, despite the title of this column, is not particularly new. In fact, we had an editorial eight years ago explaining part of that... Mar. 18, 2008 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 3,891 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Well, if you listened to Rob Enderle of Enderle Group (www2.sdtimes.com/pdf/SDTimesBackIssues/sdtimes184.pdf) you might think that Rapid Application Development (RAD) is dead or dying. However, I think it's important to distinguish between two different things that are often lumped tog... Mar. 4, 2008 01:00 PM EST Reads: 3,876 |
By Bruce Armstrong  That isn't, by the way, a Chinese curse. The phrase 'may you live in interesting times' (which became popular after Robert Kennedy used it in a speech in 1966) probably originated from a 1950's science fiction story. Regardless of its roots though, we find ourselves living in such time... Feb. 27, 2008 11:00 AM EST Reads: 4,211 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Or well, perhaps it just seems that way. Like the Dilbert strip where aliens kidnap the PHB and one of them impersonates him. They all notice because he's suddenly more competent and caring, so they don't report it. Sybase released PowerBuilder 11.0 in June of 2007 and hyped it at Tech... Jan. 6, 2008 08:45 AM EST Reads: 8,251 |
By Bruce Armstrong  As with previous TechWaves, there are once again a number of changes. The most obvious one is that this year's event is at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino rather than Caesar's Palace. While not the complete move out of Vegas that I was hoping for, at least it's an improvement. Aug. 24, 2007 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 6,668 |
By Bruce Armstrong  What do you want to see in PowerBuilder 12? That's not just my question for you this month, it's also Sybase's question for you as well. Two things demonstrate that. The first is the recent invitation to participate in a survey by Sue Dunnell, PowerBuilder's product manager, so PowerBu... Jul. 25, 2007 06:30 PM EDT Reads: 12,178 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Every few years somebody winds up the 'PowerBuilder is dead' argument, and every few years we beat it down again. This time it's Mary Brandel of ComputerWorld and her list of the 'top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills' (www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic... Jul. 3, 2007 08:30 AM EDT Reads: 10,425 Replies: 2 |
By Bruce Armstrong  I just recently (finally) upgraded to a Wii, and I only had to pay about $50 over retail on an auction site to get it. Good luck trying to find one in the LA area; most stores told me it would be at least a month before they had more. Then try finding accessories once you have one. I h... Jun. 2, 2007 05:00 PM EDT Reads: 17,485 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Just over a year ago PowerBuilder 10.5 was about to release and we looked at the top 10.5 reasons to move to that version. In that same vein, I'm going to look at the top 11 reasons to consider PowerBuilder 11.0, which is just about to hit the street. This time I'm going to break those... Jun. 2, 2007 02:45 PM EDT Reads: 11,541 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Over the years we've been offered, either by Sybase or by third-party companies, a number of 'move PowerBuilder to the Web' offerings. Focusing specifically on those offered by Sybase, we were first offered Web.pb. It was provided as a set of libraries with PowerBuilder 6 that was buil... Mar. 12, 2007 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 10,248 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  (OK, let me start off by acknowledging that in the literary work I am alluding to, Juliet is not asking this question because she's looking for Romeo. She's actually lamenting that he comes from the rival family. But it's so commonly misunderstood that I thought it would be useful none... Feb. 1, 2007 01:00 PM EST Reads: 9,014 |
By Bruce Armstrong  About this time of year folks make their predictions about what's coming up in the New Year. Not to be left out, here's mine, along with my thoughts on what these events will mean for you. Jan. 18, 2007 12:45 PM EST Reads: 9,514 |
By Bruce Armstrong  New features of this release include the DataWindow Designer Visual Studio Plug-in. This is a set of plug-ins for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. It enables users to design DataWindow objects directly in Visual Studio instead of in the standalone DataWindow Designer from the previous ver... Jan. 11, 2007 12:15 AM EST Reads: 8,906 |
By Bruce Armstrong  It may be a bit early, but I have a New Year's resolution I'd like to propose to Sybase: 'No more 80% solutions.' What is an 80% solution? It's a technology approach that seems well conceived and when used with small demonstration applications (e.g., beta testing) works well. Dec. 8, 2006 02:00 PM EST Reads: 9,415 |
By Bruce Armstrong  It took me a while to mull over what I thought about the conference, but the following is my take on it. This year at TechWave the Game Show was held during the reception, where food and drink were served. In a similar mode, many of the meals were served in the exhibit hall. As I menti... Nov. 8, 2006 12:00 PM EST Reads: 9,427 Replies: 4 |
By Paul Horan  Yes, Virginia, Sybase does have a J2EE-compatible application server, and it's known as EAS, short for Enterprise Application Server. In fact, EAS is alive and well, and this issue of the PowerBuilder Developer's Journal will focus on the recent release of version 6.0. Oct. 29, 2006 01:30 PM EST Reads: 9,877 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Welcome to TechWave 2006! The structure of the conference has changed significantly this year. The two- and four-day a.m. education courses are gone, at least in that format. This year what were the two-day classes are given in a single five-hour session on either Monday or Tuesday aft... Aug. 9, 2006 07:30 PM EDT Reads: 11,147 Replies: 3 |
By Bruce Armstrong  PowerBuilder has almost entirely lost mind share. In order to reintroduce PowerBuilder to a new generation of developers, Sybase should treat it like a new product. When it was originally being developed, PowerSoft used the product internally and also partnered with clients, providing ... Jun. 28, 2006 12:45 PM EDT Reads: 11,155 Replies: 3 |
By Bruce Armstrong  This month we'll take an in-depth look at the new features introduced or existing features enhanced in DataWindow.NET 2.0. In summary, DataWindow.NET 20 includes the following: May. 12, 2006 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 11,233 |
By Bruce Armstrong  This month we take an in-depth look at the new features introduced or existing features enhanced in PowerBuilder 10.5. Even though it is not a full point release, it (like 6.5) is a full major release. In order to get many of these enhancements to the user (you and me) sooner, Sybase s... Mar. 15, 2006 03:00 PM EST Reads: 16,824 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Back in the late 1980s I was using a data management tool known as DataEase. At the time it was a DOS-based tool that communicated only with its own proprietary database files. Essentially it was a competitor to dBase, but one that was more network-aware and provided better screen-gene... Feb. 27, 2006 03:15 PM EST Reads: 11,271 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  For the past three months I've been looking at new products or new versions of products that Sybase is introducing and reviewing some of my concerns with them. My general sense is that Sybase is often headed in the right direction, but that they're moving too slowly. In no place is it ... Jan. 25, 2006 08:30 PM EST Reads: 14,522 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  A few months ago I promised to look at four new or updated technologies coming from Sybase and discuss my concerns with each of them. So far we've looked at the deployment to ASP.NET feature coming in PowerBuilder 11 and the Application Server Plug-in for PowerBuilder that is being int... Jan. 13, 2006 01:30 PM EST Reads: 10,857 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Last month I started a series in which I'll be looking at some of the important new technology offerings Sybase showed at TechWave and share with you my comments (good or bad) about those technologies. Nov. 7, 2005 12:30 PM EST Reads: 17,948 Replies: 1 |
By Bruce Armstrong  Or, more specifically, it's not coming quickly enough. With regard to the future of PowerBuilder and related technologies, there were several significant product directions announced and/or demonstrated at TechWave 2005. What I would like to focus on is four of them: the new PowerBuild... Oct. 12, 2005 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 11,244 Replies: 1 |