Latest News from Bruce Armstrong

The PowerBuilder Ecosystem

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:15:00 EST

One of the indications of how well a product is doing is how well the ecosystem surrounding it is doing. For a software product that can be determined by a number of things, including how active user groups are and whether the number of third-party products that work with it are increasing or decreasing. Well, thanks in large part to the efforts of Sybase to promote the new version, there have been user group meetings across the world recently. Upcoming events are still scheduled for London, UK, Zurich, Switzerland and Lima, Peru. The third-party product market for PowerBuilder is also alive and well: The folks at ECrane Computing – the makers of PowerGen (one of those tools that no PowerBuilder shop should be without) – recently announced a new product called PowerVCS. PowerVCS is a web-based source control system focused on supporting PowerBuilder.

PBNISMTP

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:58:02 EST

The version on Sybase’s CodeXchange site has been out of date for some time, despite my having

More on Sybase Developer Days...

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:40:17 EST

There’s an official page on the Sybase site to register now. You can register for one of 4 tr

Novalys PowerBuilder Surveys

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:57:03 EST

The results for the 2009 Novayls PowerBuilder Survey are in, and the 2010 Survey has begun. http://w

Sybase Developer Days

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:49:58 EST

April 19th – Milan, Italy April 20th – Frankfurt, Germany April 21st – Amsterdam,

Here's another way to access .Net from PB

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:17:05 EST

Particularly for those folks using pre-11.0 versions who don’t want to take the CCW approach:

How PowerBuilder Got Its Groove Back

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:00:00 EST

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 large number of IT-related news outlets, including Darryl K Taft in eWeek (http://xrl.us/eweek), Sam M Fulton III in BetaNews (http://xrl.us/betanews), David Worthington in Software Development Times (http://xrl.us/sdtimes), Eric J Bruno in Doctor Dobbs (http://xrl.us/dobbs), John K Waters in both Visual Studio Magazine (http://xrl.us/visualstudio) and Application Development Trends (http://xrl.us/apdevtrends) and Paul Krill in ComputerWorld (http://xrl.us/compworld),

Is the Ladder We’re Climbing Resting on the Wrong Wall?

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:45:00 EST

John Strano came to Los Angeles on part of the PowerBuilder 12.0 ISUG road show. If you have an opportunity to attend one in your area, run by either John or Dave Fish, they’re well worth attending. John demonstrated some impressive new features of the new version of PowerBuilder, including a fly-away image effect (see Figures 1 and 2) as well as DataWindow skinning (see Figure 3).

Unified SCC

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:40:14 EDT

One of the issues with using some of the more popular source controls systems out there (e.g., Subve

TechWave Asia Announced...

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:03:43 EDT

It’s the second of the 2009 TechWave symposiums, to be held in Bejing on October 29th and 30th

PowerBuilder returns from the dead...

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:49:24 EDT

Not sure how I missed it when it was first released. Or perhaps my age is showing and I just forgot

Some cool PBL related utilities

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:51:29 EDT

I just stumbled across this site, although it’s been out there for at least a few years. He

Using the Microsoft Chart Controls in PowerBuilder

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:45:00 EDT

You may not be aware of this, but Microsoft now provides a rather powerful charting control free of charge as an add-in for .NET 3.5. It’s available for download at http://xrl.us/ben3pm. Because it supports 35 different chart types (see Figure 1), it can add significant new charting capability to PowerBuilder applications.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare Some Code...?

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:45:00 EDT

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 when we moved to our own PowerSoft forum we had a series of file libraries.

Come Get Your Beta While It’s Hot

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:45:00 EDT

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 possible to participate in order to get the most amount of feedback as possible back to Sybase.

PowerBuilder 12 and .NET

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EDT

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 Phase 3, Sybase added a number of .NET target types to PowerBuilder 11 and added support for calling non-visual .NET assemblies from PowerScript.

Some good news, and some bad news

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:01:45 EDT

It looks like some of the pre-conference courses for the TechWave Symposium are filling up. The goo

The PowerBuilder 12.0 beta is officially on...

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:48:32 EDT

It includes a new infrastructure, built on the Visual Studio Isolated Shell, support for WPF and WCF

Update on TechWave 2009

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:35:02 EDT

Registration is open, and most of the content is now listed. It’s primarily keynotes and educ

New Features in PowerBuilder 11.5

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:00:00 EDT

In the previous articles in this series, we looked at FDCC changes (part 1) and GUI enhancements (part 2) in PowerBuilder 11.5. In this article, we’ll be looking at the enhancements that were added to PowerBuilder 11.5 that are specifically related to .NET targets. The one thing we won’t be covering in this regard is the .NET security enhancements that were covered in a previous PBDJ article: “Applying Code Access Security in PowerBuilder .NET Applications” by Maggie Lv.

If It’s Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing...Twice?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:45:00 EDT

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 backs up the old saying about Microsoft technologies, best stated by Karl E. Peterson.

New Features in PowerBuilder 11.5 – Part 2

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:15:00 EDT

This is the second part of an ongoing series about the new features that were added in PowerBuilder 11.5. In the first part, we looked at the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) and the impact it had on developers. In this part, we’re going to look at a number of the improvements in GUI functionality. We’ll start that by comparing a couple of screenshots of images in DataWindows (Figure 1 and Figure 2), which demonstrate a number of these new functions.

TechWave Goes Global

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:30:00 EDT

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.

TechWave 2009 - Washington, D.C. date announced

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:12:46 EDT

They’ve finally released the date and other pertinent information on the Washington, D.C. Tech

New Features in PowerBuilder 11.5

Thu, 28 May 2009 12:45:00 EDT

I plan to make this the first of a series of articles that discuss the new features in PowerBuilder 11.5, which was released late last year. Of course, they won’t be the first articles we’ve run on the topic, as we ran an article on the new Code Access Security features back even before 11.5 was released and a more recent article on New DataWindow Features. This series of articles is intended to discuss the major hitters of the remaining features.

A New IDE - WPF Workshop

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:00:00 EDT

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 (and that in itself is new), but what I want to focus on is the new IDE called WPF Workshop.

Supporting Events from .NET Visual Components in PowerBuilder

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EDT

This article seems like it should be the fourth in a series of articles. The first two were on non-visual components in August 2006 and July of 2007. The last one was in August of 2007. In that one, we looked at using the Interop Forms Toolkit to provide a COM wrapper for Visual .NET components – essentially making them ActiveX controls – so that PowerBuilder could use them.

PowerBuilder Editorial: Hi, I’m Mort from Ort...

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EDT

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 the Chasm.”

Supporting Oracle Failover in PowerBuilder Applications

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:15:00 EDT

Oracle has provided support for failing over database connections and, through Transparent Application Failover (TAF), doing so in a way that allows connected applications to continue functioning relatively uninterrupted during and after the failover. The connected application has to work with the Oracle client layer to participate in the failover, rather than just erroring out when the original connection is lost.

PowerBuilder with FusionCharts

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST

Back in August of 2007, I wrote an article entitled "Dynamically Generating Next-Generation Charts from PowerBuilder DataWindows" that demonstrated one method of dynamically generating Flash charts from within a PowerBuilder application. I was primarily writing that from the perspective of writing standard client/server applications. PowerBuilder 11 was just freshly released, and so while the option of creating WebForm applications that incorporated the technology was a factor that was being considered, it wasn’t part of the sample at that time.

TechWave goes global...

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:20:34 EST

From Paul Horan’s blog. Not much I can add, just passing it along. Bit of a bummer, as I was

The Future of . . .

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:12:00 EST

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 among others is one attempt to do so. One particular concept I found intriguing did involve evolution.

Microsoft's Plans for Windows Mobile...

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:54:20 EST

Microsoft has indicating that they’ll be making a major announcement in February about Windows

DataWindow Formatting Tip

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:54:15 EST

This is from Chris Werner in the Sybase newsgroups. Someone asked if there was a way to improve the

PowerBuilder Accelerated Development Tour

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:32:37 EST

The PowerBuilder Accelerated Development Tour is making it’s swing through the U.S. Currently

The Ol’ Hidden Items in the Dddw Problem Part II

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:44:23 EST

We all eventually need to build a datawindow where the contents of a drop down list is dependent on

TechWave Revisited

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:22:00 EST

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 still not a big fan of Las Vegas, but the Mandalay Bay was a great place to hold the event.

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For…

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:30:00 EST

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 move us to a place where we won’t need to deploy unmanaged code. But I’m doubtful that the current WebForms implementation will ever get us to a place where we are browser independent.

Welcome to TechWave 2008!

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:02:00 EST

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 that at times there were lines to get into the elevators to the hotel rooms. Other than that it was great last year, and I’m expecting the same this year.

Sybase PowerBuilder Takes Honors in Mobile Star Awards

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:25:00 EST

Sybase took honors in several categories of the Mobile Star Awards, including a Gold in the Application Development category for PowerBuilder. Application Development Gold Star - Sybase PowerBuilder Database Gold Star - Sybase SQL Anywher

Editorial: PowerBuilder 11.5 Is on the Way . . .

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:20:00 EDT

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 component of the new features that you feel is essential but missing, you'll have only yourself to blame.

PowerBuilder Editorial: A Tale of Two Companies...

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EDT

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 offerings.

Wednesday - My first session

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:27:11 EDT

On using .net assemblies from PowerBuilder. Some on the PB11 stuff. Mostly on using them via CCW wit

PowerBuilder Editorial - "There You Go Again"

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:15:00 EDT

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 Borland released a hit piece on PowerBuilder written by a Delphi advocate. You can still find a copy of it as a series of articles on the CodeGear site.

A New Year and a New Direction

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:00:00 EDT

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-con.com/read/42184.htm). That shift has continued, and this editorial will explain some of the reasons for that.

PBDJ Editorial: Is RAD Dead?

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:00:00 EST

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 together and called RAD. One is the RAD development methodology and the other is 4GL tools that were often used in RAD development.

PBDJ Feature: Custom Common Dialogs Using SetWindowsHookEx

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:00:00 EST

PBDJ's readers ask us from time to time what the most popular article in the magazine has been over recent years. We are delighted to report that the answer is that it is one by our very own and much loved editor-in-chief, Bruce Armstrong. We first published it in 2005. Here it is again in full so that you can enjoy Bruce's insights into the endless scope for customization in PowerBuilder.

PBDJ Editorial: We Live in Interesting Times...

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST

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.

Aliens Take Over Sybase...

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:45:00 EST

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.

TechWave 2007

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:00:00 EST

This year TechWave 2007 took place at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. For those of you who didn't make it, the following is a recap of the events, with a couple of thoughts and suggestions thrown in. Officially the only thing going on Sunday was conference registration. However, there is a private TeamSybase/Sybase reception on Sunday evening where, among other things, new TeamSybase members are inducted. This year we added one new member: Roland Smith.