Is Powerbuilder Dead?

[Sombat]

My employer wants me to learn Powerbuilder. From every indication I have seen, if Powerbuilder is not dead yet, it is in its dead throes. Does anyone have any evidence to the contrary?

 

[goldenlam]

I posed the same type of question this past summer. Read what I got back.

goldenhead (MIS) Jun 1, 2000

I need to eat in the future and would like to know thoughts on using this tool as a primary development skill in the future. Should I get a job at McDonald's too in order to eat or will PB stay alive? gh

buj (Programmer) Jun 2, 2000

MAC powerbuilder is dead and so are MACS, but I think if Sybase implemented internet protocols such as FTP, HTTP, etc as modules or methods like the transaction object then Powerbuilder could become a very powerful object oriented development platform. Problem is they would be competing with the likes of Delphi.

jthomas (Programmer) Jun 5, 2000

gh, Just my input. I've been doing PB/Sybase since the beginning of '94 and, though it's "fashionability" has waned a bit since then (this is after all a fashion industry, I'm convinced), there still seems to be lots of work. Depending on what town you're in, you can get a feel for it from recruitment shops. I predict that PB code will become almost "legacy", there has been so much written in it, and it is so easy to add enhancements with it. I maintain a big system for a major broadcaster, the system was written in PB2.0 and they are still adding to it as I write this. It wouldn't make sense to rewrite it. Powersoft/Sybase just need to make sure they stay on the edge with the web development stuff. I've played around with their PowerJ java environment, it's gotten a lot of endorsments and putdowns, as any tool will have it's fans and opponents. I would just make sure you get some education in the current frenzy, i.e. html, javascript, java. I'm having to confront learning those and so far javascript/html looks the easiest. Java drives me nuts. Hope that gives you a perspective. jt

 

[Sombat]

Hi Goldenlam,

Thanks for the input. I am having problems determining the final verdict regarding PB, though. From my experiences the only big users of PB are huge institutions (e.g. States of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota and also big hospitals but not HMOs). Sybase's stock has apparently crawled out of the hole it was in during 1999 but I have no idea what has helped. A couple other people I know have also come out and asked Sybase reps if Powerbuilder is dying, but of course they received ambiguous responses. Any more clear ideas?

 

[Guest_imported]

I am really not sure myself. I have taken the approach in this field to try to learn as many different tools as possible. I have heard various things about the future of Java as a front end tool too so who can tell. By being skilled in many different tools, you just open up that many doors. I don't think PB is going to die. A large number of companies in Colorado are using PB for their dev tool and I really do not see that they are going to totally rewrite their enterprise applications. The Y2K push got a lot of people to redo their apps in a new tool but Y3K is far off and I don't think a lot of companies want to spend the capital to reinvent themselves just to be cool and up to date on dev tools. That is my take.

 

[Sombat]

Thanks once again for the input. While I am doing some PB stuff and wonder about its future, my main concern is what I spend 85% of my time doing: Easytrieve against an old S/390. When I was hired for this position I was told I would be doing web stuff, C++, Powerbuilder, and Actuate. No one mentioned Easytrieve and that is what I have done almost exclusively for the past 4 months with the exception of several PB trainings. One of my colleagues who has been in this group for the past 8 years suggested I might want to look for a different group if I did not want to do Easytrieve programs for the indefinite future. They need someone to do it and I am the newest person so I get stuck with them. Boring!! Just read that Computer Associates stopped supporting Easytrieve in 1996 and that it won't run on some newer versions of S/390. Anyway, between working with Easytrieve and JCL and scared that the one tool (Powerbuilder) that seems somewhat interesting is dying, I have been apprehensive about this job.

 

[Guest_imported]

C++ is of course always going to have an market. I have also heard that if you do get some Actuate exposure, you get big dollars in a contract/consulting role (100 bucks and hour plus in Denver). If you can fight your way into that arena, it could be very marketable.

Best of Luck

 

[Sombat]

Hi Goldenhead,

One of the reasons I took the job I am in is they said there was C++ done in the group. Thus far, I have not seen a single line of C++ code. In fact, I don't know of anyone else in the group who has ever even coded a single line of C++. The 2/3 of the group over 45 are all old Cobol and mainframe programmers who have either stuck with the mainframe (our lead programmer), or switched to PB (they are all still using PB 5.0.03 as they are adamant that PB 7.0... is not "stable" yet. No timetable at all as to when a switch to PB 7.0 or higher (I have heard that PB 8 is out in Beta) will be made. As for Actuate, we have done a few reports in Actuate but they were rolled back because of problems with the server crashing. Progress was not much help. In so many words they told us we were on our own with the problems. In part because of the problems with Actuate, the lead (who is already dubious about anything not in a mainframe package) says we will not move anything more to Actuate until it can be proven to be "stable". This leaves the guy in our group who has been the Actuate "champion" in the lurch with not much to do. He managed to go 3 months without the Actuate server going down but apparently there is not yet enough "stability" to move again on Actuate.

 

[Guest_imported]

If you want to try to get away from the mainframe stuff, the best option you have right now in your environment is to take the PB product and its local relational database (sqlanywhere) and the data modeling tool (S-designor) and if need be, learn them on your own time. Learn how to write stored procedures, triggers, complex queries and data modeling. These skills are applicable anywhere. Even with web applications, there is always going to be a database and backend processes. In the Oracle world, stored procs and triggers are very marketable. If you can do them with Sybase, you can learn the Oracle as well. There are some differences but they are not that hard to learn. Just keep trying to use the tools even if it is on your own time.

gh

 

[Triad]

CA-Easytrieve Plus is NOT dead.
The mainframe product is on release 6.2 and is actively supported. The SQL interface is a popular addon option.

The next release, 6.3, is due out in 2001.

Also available are CA-Easytrieve Online (CICS), CA-Easytrieve for Unix and Easytrieve Workstation (DOS only).

 

[theogary]

Does anyone know how to send HTML emails using MAILMESSAGE object. Using the HMTL file as a attachment does not work all the time. Is there any way to use the MAILMESSAGE.MESSAGETYPE and set the message type to HTML before it is sent.

Please someone help. Many developers want to know!