FAQs

1. What is WPF, and what happened to Windows Forms and Web Forms, and Win32 applications?

Microsoft believes that the user experience will drive the future of software development and design, and that Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is key to this direction. Because PowerBuilder runs on and supports the Microsoft platform, Sybase is dedicated to working closely with Microsoft to ensure we are delivering the most current technology that is aligned with their roadmap. Although Microsoft has indicated that they will continue to support Windows Forms, WebForms, and Win32 well into the foreseeable future, they have announced that future product enhancements will be focused on WPF and other new technologies. Microsoft considers WinForm and WebForm to be mature technologies and future enhancements for application development will focus on WPF and Silverlight functionality. With PowerBuilder 12.5, developers can continue to build and deploy Win32, Windows Forms, and WebForms applications. As noted above, PowerBuilder 12.5 ships with two IDEs, an updated version of the familiar Win32 based IDE that is also in PowerBuilder 11.5 and 12, and a brand new IDE, based on the Visual Studio isolated shell.

2. Does PowerBuilder 12.5 deliver fully managed code?

Yes, applications will have managed code at runtime providing an enhanced level of security.

3. Does PowerBuilder 12.5 still provide the ability to develop, enhance, and redeploy existing client/server applications?

Yes. Using the Win32-based IDE, developers can continue to develop in PowerBuilder as they always have. There is no requirement to use .NET or WPF functionality.

4. What support does PowerBuilder provide for WCF?

PowerBuilder 12.5 supports Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) as both a consumer and producer in two phases. First, PowerBuilder 12.5 allows developers to easily consume web services via WCF. Second, it provides wizards to guide developers to specify web services and then generate proxy objects. Developers will use WCF Services just like PowerBuilder Non-Visual Objects (NVOs).

5. How can PowerBuilder help move existing Win32 apps to WPF and the .NET arena?

PowerBuilder 12.5 includes a migration utility to assist developers who want to bring their existing Win32 applications to WPF. In addition, there is a reference application available for customers that include a tutorial of how the application was migrated from Win32 to WPF. Because Win32 and WPF are vastly different technologies, not all functionality can be automatically migrated, and customers will need to re-factor some Win32 code that does not exist in WPF. But even if re-factoring is needed, it is far easier, faster, and inexpensive than the cost and complexity of re-writing code and business logic outside of PowerBuilder.

6. What is the plan for PowerScript, will it go away?

PowerScript is here to stay. It is what you know, and it's just one of many reasons that you're so productive as a PowerBuilder developer. For WPF targets, we have enhanced the language to be compliant with Microsoft's Common Language Specification, required of all .NET languages. It supports language features such as interfaces, jagged arrays, delegates, Generics, Namespaces, etc. Therefore, you can continue to be just as productive as always and quickly build applications for Win32 and for .NET. And best of all, you don't need to learn C#.

7. How will my existing DataWindows work on the .NET platform?

Your two-tier, client/server based DataWindows should work fine running on .NET. However the OLE Presentation-style DataWindow is not supported in the WPF DataWindow.

8. Since PFC is now open source, can existing PFC business layers simply be migrated to PowerBuilder 11.x/12.x along with the rest of the application's source code?

Yes. The PFC will continue to work in WPF applications, however customers may want to re-factor their applications to take advantage of WPF's features in place of some of the PFC's functionality. For example, the PFC resize service will still work in a WPF application but developers can take advantage of WPF layout panels to accomplish the same capability with no code.

9. Is Oracle Client software required on client machines to use the PowerBuilder native drivers? Do the Native Oracle drivers allow use of Oracle 10g+ Analytic functions (range, lag, etc.) in DataWindow objects, DBA painter, inline SQL, etc?

Yes, client software for Oracle is required. Oracle has now released a "light" client driver, which requires zero installation footprint on the client workstation. Any functionality that vendors expose in their drivers should be available to developers via the DataWindow using the Native client for that RDBMS. Our documentation calls out any exceptions.

10. If an existing EAServer application is to be migrated to .NET, are there tools available to convert the server code to .NET?

There is no reason to migrate server components to .NET. They can remain as EAServer components, and EAServer now supports .NET client access.

11. Will I need to use C# to directly call .NET classes in a PowerBuilder application?

No, PowerScript is all you need. Code blocks are not needed in WPF targets, and developers can directly reference .NET classes in PowerScript.

12. What version of Windows does PowerBuilder 12.5 support?

Version 12.5 supports Windows 7.

14. Does PowerBuilder .NET fully integrate into Visual Studio.NET and Visual SourceSafe?

Yes, it integrates with Visual SourceSafe, as well as other SCC providers.

15. Will PowerBuilder .NET fully support Object Oriented programming?

PowerBuilder has supported object-oriented programming since version 2.0, and will continue to support it in all future releases.