Another year has flown by and here we are, still cranking out PowerBuilder-related articles as regularly as ever. This past year we've heavily covered EAServer from the PB angle and have published at least half a dozen articles on each new product release - including PowerBuilder 8, PowerDesigner, and EAServer 4. This issue delves heavily in PowerJ4, but next month we'll be back to our normal PB/EAServer content.

I have a confession to make. Although I've been programming with PowerBuilder since Neanderthal days, I have not used many other Sybase tools. Okay, I've never used any of them. The reason for this is fairly easy to understand. I got started with PowerBuilder because a project I was working on required it. Of course, I was so impressed with it that I sought other PowerBuilder projects. Unfortunately, your client or employer usually dictates which development tools are used, and they never selected any from Sybase.

Last year I wrote that as broadband became the standard for Internet access, important inhibitors to WWW offerings and use would be removed, resulting in a dramatic change in the WWW itself. I said that Web sites would become more powerful and feature-rich because speed would no longer be an overwhelming limiting feature.

Many of us started playing around with Java several years ago, fighting our way through CLASSPATH variables, packages, and javac.exe, and ended up with our first 'Hello World' or file read/write/close application. What did we use to write our first small application and classes?

Just the other day a client asked me to put together a document of development standards. Don't get me wrong. I love to write, but such a document tends to be too long and read by few. I told her to save her money - instead I'd write a complete programming standards guide in this editorial.

Can Sybase breath new life into PowerJ? We'll know soon. Next month PowerJ 4.0 will be released. It will contain many new features and promises to be more stable than prior versions. Though the new features will be welcome, it's more important that the features already there can be trusted to work as they are intended to. That's my main hope.

Once again events have occurred that take the focus off our day-to-day activities and remind us of our mortality. Facing death, or the deaths of family, colleagues, or friends, always makes for a potent wake-up call. It shakes us out of our routine and reminds us that life is bigger than our current project. Unfortunately, it often requires a serious event to cause us to step back and survey our lives...or the wreckage of what's left of our lives. Usually the wreckage comes in the form of divorce, irreparable relationships, and poor health. Sometimes overworking is a means of escaping difficulties at home, sometimes it's the primary cause of the wreckage. Regardless, it never leads to home improvement. Have you taken a moment to reflect on where you are and what you're doing with your life? As a fellow software developer I encourage you to do so. Start by rating the most important things in your life. Most likely, that will put your job in proper perspective.

PowerBuilder 8 has now been out for a while now. As a person who spends a lot of time in the Sybase newsgroups, I have to say that the overall opinion of this release has been very positive. EAServer 4.0 has also been released with many new features and enhancements. I predict its adoption will be just as positive. But where do we go from here?

Have a good one.' We hear this expression often these days. I find myself wondering what exactly it means. Have a good...what? But think about it. What it really means is that the speaker is unwilling to make a commitment. Someone might be offended or annoyed if you said something that actually contained any meaning.

Making Middleware Easier' is a major theme of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition. Another is 'The Platform for Enterprise Solutions.' The former sounds like they're trying to make our n-tier development jobs easier; the latter, like a sales pitch. Clearly, the software development industry is adopting the J2EE standard, but is it because of its merits (slogan 1) or because of Java hype and momentum (slogan 2)?

When asked if I would write an editorial, I jumped at the opportunity to express a growing concern I have for the direction of corporate Web development. In today's market, upper management often selects an application server for the enterprise before knowing all their business needs. This one-size-fits-all attitude can set up many projects for failure. I'll use a race car-team analogy to make my point.

Another year, another conference. The Sybase conference is like clockwork. You can set your calendar by it. Sure, it moves around some, but it's always there. A guaranteed week of 'vacation' away from my clients. Hard-core development replaced by sun, fun, and lots of elbow rubbing. It's always enjoyable, even though my levels of excitement and interest in the conferences may vary. Some are great, some are hot. And some are not. Last year was okay, but there wasn't a whole lot to be excited about.

I am often asked by new programmers what they need to do to move their skills to the next level (and gain that corresponding increase in salary that goes with it). My reply is that there are a couple of things you can do.

You can pay me now or pay me later.' I love that line. It was the catch phrase in an auto repair commercial several years ago. The story was that the transmission in this man's car was making strange noises. He took it to a repair shop and was told he needed to spend money to service the transmission. After deciding to wait on the recommended service, the man walks back to his car while the repairman shakes his head and utters the phrase that rings true in many instances.

It's been a long time since we've had a new version of PowerBuilder. I don't know about you, but I've been very patient and can't wait any longer. I'm particularly excited about PowerBuilder 8 because many of its new features address the type of development I'm doing - building Web applications consisting of JSPs calling PowerBuilder components running on EAServer.

It's been a long time since we've had a new version of PowerBuilder. I don't know about you, but I've been very patient and can't wait any longer. I'm particularly excited about PowerBuilder 8 because many of its new features address the type of development I'm doing - building Web applications consisting of JSPs calling PowerBuilder components running on EAServer.

Two years ago, I interviewed Sybase's Bill Bartow - then vice-president of marketing and engineering for the Internet Applications Division. Among the things we discussed were Sybase's plans for PowerBuilder 8 (PB 8). Now that PB 8 is here, I'd like to look back at that interview and see how closely the product tracked with those plans.

Sometimes this job is a real headache, and at other times, it's a lot of fun. This month was fun. Instead of searching for writers for the focus topic, PowerDesigner 8, I was able to quickly line up four solid PD8 articles plus the usual mixture of other topics. Why was it so easy? Excitement. A lot of people are excited about this new version and what it can do.

If you're reading this, chances are you're enamored of PowerBuilder. Not just a casual user, but a longtime adherent and defender thereof. And why shouldn't you be? PowerBuilder, in my humble opinion, is the best. From the first time I tried the patented DataWindow right up to EAStudio 3.5, I have always been able to deploy the best solutions for my clients using these tools. PowerBuilder and its accompanying solution set have always been growing. What's more, our knowledge and experience in PowerBuilder has made moving to EAServer virtually painless.

I often go on dates with my wife and kids to Barnes & Noble. We pick some interesting books and sit around with coffee or hot cocoa and enjoy reading and being together. On these dates I always go over to the computer section and see which PowerBuilder books are on the shelves. The last time I was there Barnes & Noble had no PowerBuilder-related books on its shelves. Just a few years ago there would have been at least three, maybe more. Where did they all go?

For each of the last two years I have taken an industry-wide look at the application server market. Continuing that trend, I will examine the past year and evaluate the application server market space for the current year. Why? Because distributed and Web applications, with servers at their heart, are the predominant architecture used to build today's systems. Application servers deliver platforms upon which we can build components and create dynamic Web pages.

I really loved the '70s, and have nothing but fond memories of the decade that brought us white bell-bottom pants, John Travolta, and KISS. The '70s are also remembered as the years of electronic miniaturization. All electronic gadgets were getting smaller, except radios got bigger (I'm still figuring that one out). What I remember most is a watch I used to own. Not a normal watch mind you, but a watch to end all watches.

That's the latest incarnation of our favorite tools: EAServer and EAStudio. Rumors and ruminations of release dates have been quietly circulating for quite some time. No official dates have been announced, but I expect to hear something soon. All the way back in August, at TechWave 2000, Sybase made public that PB8 would continue to be the cornerstone of EAStudio, that it would have better integration with EAServer (PB7 is already very well integrated), that PowerSite would be integrated into it (that means support for HTML and JavaScript within PB!), and that it would be based on workspaces and targets.

Sybase is back in the news, having once again posted gains in both revenues and profits. In fact, their latest quarterly announcement indicates they had the best quarter in the history of the company. That caps a truly amazing turnaround.

Another year has quickly passed and once again we'll take a moment to look at how my predictions for the year fared. Last January I predicted the following five things:

As Sybase prepares to move its corporate headquarters from Emeryville to Dublin, California, the company has decided to do some serious redecorating of its current office space (check out www.sybase.com/wrap for a look). Sybase has unveiled a massive advertisement for Sybase Enterprise Portal and posted it on its building. This ad contains one of those 'men in black' that have appeared in Sybase's print ads along with a banner that reads: 'Without a Sybase Enterprise Portal your business is operating in the dark.' The ad is positioned so that an estimated 165,000 people commuting on I-80 will see the message each day.

In the spirit of the current times, I'll use the U.S. presidency as a metaphor for my point today. Software development managers are like presidents and developers are like presidential aides. The job of the president is a difficult one. He's supposed to know everything about everything and be able to make life-and-death decisions based on all facts, with full confidence, and without blinking. Sounds just like your software development manager, doesn't it?

As a consultant, I'm keenly aware of the bitterness some people have toward us. On many occasions I've felt the ire of managers who, in the past, have had bad experiences. The causes vary, but the blame can usually be spread evenly between management and the consultants. Unfortunately, this results in a negative view toward consultants and the valuable services they provide.

There's no denying it. We're living in an n-tier world, especially since the release of PowerBuilder 7.0 and the Web DataWindow. It's almost counterintuitively caused many PB developers to ask themselves questions like: 'What am I going to do with my client/server PowerBuilder skills? Where is the market going? Do I have to learn Java and JavaScript? Or C++? Or VB and VBScript?'

My forecasts for the future of Sybase have been through a renaissance. More than an evolution, they've been reborn.

I have been disappointed by the last few Sybase conferences. Overall they were fine, but Sybase didn't successfully use them to alleviate fears that the company was in decline. The stock price was down, analysts and press were negative, Sybase's vision was a mystery and phantom marketing was successfully keeping the Sybase products hidden from the market.

To butcher a popular quote by Mark Anthony: 'I have come here to praise Sybase, not destroy them.' With the release of EAS 3.6, Sybase has set the standard for application server tool excellence. Clearly Sybase tools are 'best of breed' and provide the programming world with a plethora of scalable, powerful and flexible development tools. Not only are the tools the best in the market, they're incredibly easy to use. Any programmer with a PowerBuilder or Java background already has a head start in mastering EAS. Other products may be technically superior in certain areas, but as a whole, Sybase has hit the mother lode with EAS.

Another TechWave issue? You bet! In addition to our content changing to flow with the currents of technology, our schedule is also changing. We've been moving up the schedule each month with the goal of getting on the magazine racks by the first of the month rather than the middle, which has been the case for quite some time. The July issue was going to be the TechWave issue because we hadn't anticipated having the August issue ready by July 30. After getting July out earlier than expected, we went full speed ahead on this issue and I'm now proud to say we're back on schedule. Both the July and August issues are being given out to all TechWave 2000 attendees.

When anyone asks me for help developing Web applications I usually say, 'That's easy,' or 'It's really simple.' The last time I responded that way I was told, 'Everything is easy for you.' The fact is, I've been developing C/S applications for over 10 years and Web applications for four (when I started my own ISP). Now that the industry is moving to distributed development, I have the necessary skill set to understand relational databases, objects and components, Web servers and HTML, CGI, page servers, servlets, JSP, Applets, COM and more. While I learned all these moving parts, many developers were looking for a solution that integrated all these parts into one development tool.

Each year the Sybase conference gives me a good excuse to visit friends in Florida, catch some rays, go to amusement parks and take a break from my clients. I usually arrive on Friday or Saturday and stay until the following Sunday. That's nine days for a four-day conference; plenty of time to enjoy my former stomping grounds. However, during the four days of the conference I'm all business...sort of. You might find me at Jelly's Piano Bar or in one of the many restaurants - but even those times are meant for networking. The rest of the time I'll be taking advantage of this once-a-year bonanza of information and access.

One fine sunny morning you go to your automotive repair shop to pick up your car. The service manager assured you last night that the repairs would be finished first thing in the morning....

I remember the first time I saw Mitchell Kertzman; it was at the first annual International Users Convention. I heaped praise on PowerBuilder, then issued him a stern warning. I told him that I was a great fan of PowerBuilder, but the moment it lost its edge I would jump ship.

Once again Sybase's annual conference is quickly approaching. TechWave 2000 will be held at the location most popular among past attendees, Disney World's Swan and Dolphin hotels, from July 30 through August 3. Following the precedent set last year, this year's TechWave will cover all of Sybase's products rather than just the development tools, which was the standard until last year.

It's unnecessary, inefficient and risky for an organization to totally rewrite their existing client/server applications in order to deliver some of the services contained within those applications on the Web.

If you're a regular reader you've probably noticed the recent evolution of this magazine from focusing specifically on PowerBuilder to covering the several tools included in EAStudio as well as the Enterprise Application Server.