The launch of PowerBuilder 8 coincides with the 10 year anniversary of the
product. Sybase focused on three major areas in this release - the Web,
EAServer integration, and n-tier development and productivity. Sybase has
introduced a host of new features that speed up the development of
client/server applications and provide some significant capabilities for next
generation application development. The following is a Q & A with the
PowerBuilder product manager, Sue Dunnell, and the editors of PBDJ.
Q: Toward whom is this release oriented?
A: This release was designed with the needs of our customer base in mind.
Many of our customers plan to maintain and develop existing and new two-tier
applications with PowerBuilder 8. For these customers we've added many
features to h... (more)
People always like the shiny and new, regardless of whether it's gadgets,
clothes, cars, or technology. It's exciting to get something new; we feel
good about ourselves, like we're a part of an elite group, ahead of the
curve, "in the know." Yet "buyer's remorse" is also a well-known phenomenon
because many purchases end up being not quite what we expected. That new
gadget may have one o... (more)
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?"
As the ... (more)
Are you a long-time PowerBuilder user who's still developing on an early
version such as 5.x or 6.x? If so, now is the perfect time to move to
PowerBuilder 9.0 for two reasons:
1. You'll get the latest version of the industry's leading RAD environment
with new client/server, Web, and distributed functionality.
2. You'll be on a supported version of PowerBuilder. Engineering support
for ... (more)
PowerBuilder 10.5 is almost ready, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions
about what's in the release and how it can make your job easier. You are also
probably wondering why it's called "10.5," how it fits in with our roadmap
for PowerBuilder, and what our plans are for tools in general, especially in
light of the news that Borland is selling off its IDE product set. I will
attempt to... (more)
Sue Dunnell is the product manager for PowerBuilder, InfoMaker, DataWindow.NET, and Pocket PowerBuilder at Sybase. But, she began her career in criminal justice with undergraduate and graduate degrees in that field. Aftert nine years of private investigations, consulting, and teaching at Northeastern University, she switched fields and received a Master's degree from Northeastern's Graduate School of Engineering. Previously at Sybase, Sue worked in the Custom/Alliance techsupport group and in a staff position dedicated to internal training, hiring, customer service and certifications. Sue briefly left Sybase to work at an internet startup, but came back to PowerBuilder, and currently works in Concord, Massachusetts.
Arjun Rudra
Vincent Kadar
Jill Starr
Christophe Dufourmantelle
Hovhannes Avoyan
Josh Powell
Pawel Plaszczak
Bob Little
Shai Quest
Bob Snyder
