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 shift (http://pbdj.sys-co n.com/read/42184.htm). That shift has continued, and this editorial will explain some of the reasons for that.

Well, if you listened to Rob Enderle of Enderle Group (www2.sdtimes.com/p df/SDTimesBackIssues/sdti mes184.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 together and called RAD. One is the RAD development methodology and the other is 4GL tools that were often used in RAD development.

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 times. In a previous issue I talked about the incremental releases that Sybase was doing for PowerBuilder 11.

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 TechWave in August. 11.1 was (as I write this) recently announced and expected to be delivered in mid-November.

As I've mentioned previously, TechWave 2007 was (IMHO) one of the best TechWaves we've had in years. Nonetheless, there is always room for improvement. I've made some specific comments in my blog, but there are a few general suggestions that are the most important. Quite a few Sybase customers are large corporations or government agencies that have long approval cycles for travel.

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.

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 PowerBuilder users could 'provide some feedback to us as we plan for the next major release of PowerBuilder.'

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.computerworl d.com/action/article.do?c ommand=printArticleBasic& articleId=9020942).

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 had to hit a half a dozen stores before I found additional controllers. It's not because the stores don't carry them; it's because they fly off the shelves as soon as they come in.

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 reasons into two groups: those that directly affect your end users (things they will notice) and thing that will make your life as a developer easier but won't necessarily affect your users. The reason I want to focus on them that way is because as developers we often get excited about the second set, but in order to sell an upgrade to our managers we often need to stress the former.

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 built on the Distributed PowerBuilder (DPB) technology introduced with PowerBuilder 5. It actually worked fairly well for developing Web front-ends to non-visual components in an n-tier environment. However, its dependence on DPB spelled its doom once DPB was de-supported in favor of EAServer.

(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 nonetheless.)

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.

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 versions. The standalone DataWindow Designer will not be distributed with DataWindow.NET 2.5.

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.

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 mentioned earlier, that particular format seemed to work well. There also didn't seem to be as many problems as there were last year with having enough food or providing it fast enough.

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.

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 afternoon. What were the four-day a.m. courses are given in a single 10-hour session all day Tuesday.

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 them with insight into what new features and improvements to existing features were needed. That same kind of insight is missing today. By partnering with key customers, Sybase can gain better knowledge about how the product is currently being used and which areas need improvement.

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:

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 split off a subset of the original enhancements planned for the 11.0 release. The stuff that is centered around .NET deployment remains in the 11.0 feature set. In the meantime, the features that were not .NET deployment-related are available now.

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-generation capability.

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 more obvious than when it comes to the core item that ties all these products together: the DataWindow. In this fourth and final month I'll be looking at the Sybase product that is essentially nothing but the DataWindow: DataWindow.NET.

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 introduced simultaneously with (but as a separate product from) EAServer 6.0. This month I'll be looking at the JSF DataWindow and next month I'll be covering DataWindow.NET.

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.

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 PowerBuilder Application Server Plugin (PASP), the ASP.NET Application Deployment option that will be available in PowerBuilder 11, enhancements to DataWindow.NET, and the new JavaServer Faces (JSF) DataWindow. (See my TechWave Report in this same issue for addtional information.) This month I'll comment specifically on the Application Server Plugin and I'll address the others in upcoming months.

Two months ago I discussed what I thought were the top 10 features that should be added to PowerBuilder. Last month I discussed some of the new features that Sybase had indicated would be incorporated in the recently announced PB version 10.5. This month I want to take a different approach and look at the top 10 features that Sybase should remove from PowerBuilder.

Last month my editorial was about 'must-have' improvements in PowerBuilder. Well, shortly after that piece was written we got a sneak peak at the enhancements coming in the next version of PowerBuilder.

A while back I took the new features I suggested in my PBDJ editorial last year, all the input from last TechWave's enhancement section discussion, and all of the suggestions from a long thread a while back in the sybase.public.powe rbuilder.future _directions forum, and I entered them into the ISUG enhancement request system.

Keeping up with all the blogs out there can be time-consuming, which is why I decided to present some excerpts from my blog (http://blog.pbdjmag azine.com) in this month's editorial.

Have you ever done a search for files containing a specific text with Windows Explorer and gotten no results even though you know the files are there? Well, if you're using XP, chances are the problem is that XP only returns results for files whose extensions have a 'PersistentHandler' value in the registry.

Revolutions often don't happen as a result of the force of will of one person or group of persons, but as a result of an alignment of factors that come together in unexpected ways. As an extreme example, World War II didn't occur as a result of one man's actions, but resulted from a series of social, political, and economic factors.

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 annual TeamSybase meeting in San Francisco. I'll be meeting the best of the best, who support the products I love, and I'll also be meeting the managers of these products. This is indeed something special and I'm proud to be a part of this team.

We may have seen the bottom. After three years of IT dark ages, there's some real evidence that after years of budget cuts, 2004 promises more jobs and projects for all of us.

Believe it or not 2004 is the tenth year I'll be writing for PBDJ! I can't believe it myself. This magazine debuted back in 1994 when PowerBuilder was the hottest client/server software development tool in the world.

Recently I was at a Sybase event and an IT supervisor/PB developer approached me and asked why the new features in PowerBuilder were almost entirely for Web and n-tier and only a few were for client/server development. First, tools that are purely for client/server development are dead and dying, though client/server development is alive and well.

I can't believe it's almost 2004. Sounds so futuristic right? By now I'm sure all of you work 35-hour weeks and take two-month vacations. Your office is a relic of the past. With advances in teleconferencing and telecommunications, you all work comfortably in your home.

Over the past three years I have witnessed many rounds of layoffs. I consider myself lucky. Since 1996 I have worked exclusively on a consulting basis. So in theory, I have no job to lose. This, of course, means I always have to look for a job, since no project lasts forever.

Products and markets have well-defined life cycles that vary in amplitude and length, but follow historical patterns. As Bob Hendry described in his editorial in last month's issue ('Is IT Outsourcing Worth It?' [Vol. 10, issue 10]), the IT outsourcing craze is in full swing.

While studying computer science at the University of California in Santa Barbara, I worked for a company named Inter-Continental Telex (ICT). The name implied a large corporation with offices in major cities around the world.