Re: PowerBuilder and Informix

Although it is subjective: "fairly basic database applications", I think Power Builder is very expesive for that matter... it's something like U$5,xxx or more (enterpirse edition). In regard of "many Informix/PowerBuilder developers"... they are not much... that is even a common complain you can read on forums.syabase.com (very interesting BTW). Even there are companys which see an opportunity on this and have developed migrators form PB to .Net or Java, it even say you why... (http://www.metex.com/p_whyleavepowerbuilder.html). So you see there are some gray cloud over Power Builder, But if you ask my personal opinion: Power Builder is: - Very easy to learn - Is object oriented - If you know 4gl, you know 70% of the language - It supports informix very well 5.x 7.x 9.x... well what we have used - Data windows objects - Multiplataform (you need to be Judicious) - You can develop fat rich clients - You can develop thin clients - You can develop, 2-tier, 3-tier, n-tier applications - Integration with Application servers (BEA, WebSphere) - You couuld develop EJBs - You can do Web - Services - You can do .NET in the future - It integrates partially (fully in the future) with sybase case tools - You have at least two very good books about it: www.pb9books.com - Someones think that PB bussiness logic is easier than Java - Well... I could go on... - Has a very good and talented user base www.teamsybase.com - If you know PB you could easyly develop mobile apps = pocketPB - As you see I could go on... In my opinon Sybase has failed a LOT in promoting PB and it is very expensive, current version is 9.0 and for what I see in some ppt presentations it the last techwave they made 10.0 version have a lot improvements over the language, to me PW will looks more and more to Java. If you have the money and have growing "programming" plans I really suggest you Power Builder. Of course you must judge by yourself, but if Sysbase do the right moves Power Builder's future will be bright. Chucho! Sean R. Durity wrote: > We are evaluating the use of PowerBuilder 9 for building fairly basic > database applications hitting an Informix 9.x server. Some of this is > re-writing/re-working a 4GL application. I would like to know if there > are many Informix/PowerBuilder developers out there and if they > recommend PB as a development environment. > > Some keys: > - low number of users (<15) > - need quick development/deployment cycle > - all clients are Windows 2000; multi-platform would be nice, but > Java/Swing seems to be more complicated to do well. > - fat/rich client preferred; web interface too limiting > - do not care about .Net, prefer to avoid. > - we use Linux servers for web, network, IDS, etc. > > I know some about 4Js/Genero, but it seems way too expensive, > especially with per client fees. Also, it seems to be a niche product > with no books, little internet information, etc. Hopefully > PowerBuilder isn't falling into that problem as well. Is it being > consumed by .Net and Delphi and Java? > -- Atte, Jes's Antonio Santos Giraldo jeansagi@myrealbox.com jeansagi@netscape.net sending to informix-list