Re: Evaluation of DBMS Application Development Environs

From: Qing Yin <umyin_at_ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1993 23:23:12 GMT
Message-ID: <CAA6Ao.C2s_at_ccu.umanitoba.ca>


In article <CA9uyo.3n7_at_news.cis.umn.edu> westrich_at_bingo.ncc.umn.edu () writes:
>This is a follow up on a previous post where I posted my criteria
>for selecting a client/server DBMS. Here I've listed my observations
>to date on front end tools, and welcome any comments on these.
>Please respond by email and I will summarize and re-post.
>-- Thank you!
>
>I've heard that Powerbuilder (PB) provides a
>very broad and easy to use development environment, but that it isn't
>flexible enough to handle complex SQL queries, and requires special
>table setup on the server (how much trouble is this?). I've also heard

Just run the script and it's done.

>criticism of PB's report writer, though I'm not sure if this refers to
>their most recent version. ...

(1) From report layout point of view:

The field layout are not very flexible. For example, it's hard, if not impossible, to do a two-colomn mailing label list. While in Sybase's DWB, it's done
in editing. A more specific example is that you can not do a "float" or "reduce botom/reduce right" on fields/layouts, as you could in DWB.

(2) From the data-retrieval point of view:

You couldn't nest queries. You have to write program to loop through the returning data, if
you wish to do things like nested batch in DWB.

Notice that there are no ready-to-go tricks to solve problem (1) and (2). We have regular/normal reports done in DWB, but I don't see an easy way to do them in PB.

I might be wrong since PB is growing very rapidly. In version 3, there will be a PowerViewer, which is almost an end-user product. Great for quick reports.

-- 


Vincent Q. Yin
umyin_at_ccu.umanitoba.ca
Received on Sat Jul 17 1993 - 01:23:12 CEST

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