Re: PB 4.0 vs Oracle Forms

In article <3kkbb4$hsm_at_canopus.cc.umanitoba.ca> rgallen_at_access.mbnet.mb.ca (Rennie Allen) writes:
>In <SMUENCH.95Mar20001029_at_doh.oracle.com> smuench_at_oracle.com (Steven P. Muench) writes:
>
>[...]
>
>>Oracle's Developer/2000 suite, announced last week, include the latest
>>and greatest release of Forms 4.5 and has free runtimes.
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Free runtimes has been a Powersoft policy for a long time; Oracle was forced
>into this. I would rather trust that Powersoft is going to continue this
>policy, than trust that Oracle is going to continue this policy...

Just to set the record straight here, I think you can trust Oracle as much as you can trust Sybase (and PowerBuilder is now OWNED lock stock and barrel by Sybase). And PowerSoft was forced to go with free runtimes, just like Oracle though a bit earlier, by Microsoft going to free runtimes -- they didn't do it out of the goodness of their hearts. In any case, the past is prologue (not Prolog ;-) -- now both Oracle and Sybase offer free runtimes.

>(not trying to provoke a flame war here; I think the statement is reasonable)
>
>>With Oracle Forms 4.5, included in the Developer/2000 suite, you build
>>standard Windows MDI applications which behave like any other Windows
>>app on the market. The benefits over Powerbuilder in the MDI area are:
 

>> (1) We support vertical and horizontal toolbar alleys on all
>> windows including the MDI parent window. These toolbar alleys
>> can have all the same controls you need in your toolbars just
>> like *real* Windows applications have: buttons, poplists,
>> text items, even VBX controls! PB supports only iconic buttons
>> in the MDI parent window.
>
>True. Glad there's competition out there....
>
>> (2) You don't write code to get an MDI app in Oracle Forms, in PB
>> you do (they're new application template can save you a little
>> time, but you still end up writing code for most MDI apps)
>
>Well, after years of experience with all sorts of high level development
>tools (12 years). I have come to appreciate, that writing code is not bad;
>writing code is good. It gives flexibility. No matter how many claims
>to the contrary I have seen in my career, nothing beats being able to write
>good code. One of the strengths of Powerbuilder is that it provides a well
>designed development environment, which encourages writing *good* code. It's
>not perfect, but for a high level system it's pretty good.

You *can* write just as much code in Developer/2000 as in PowerBuilder 4. You just get a lot more out of it.

Let me give an analogy. It takes a lot more effort to walk than to drive. Sometimes walking is good. However, when trying to scale a mountain range, often driving is preferable ;-) Sybase's PowerBuilder forces you to walk always. Developer/2000 gives you the option of walking or driving.

Bringing this back to development, Sybase's PowerBuilder forces you to do mundane chores all the time. Sometimes you can reuse previous work, but not always and it certainly carries a performance penalty. With Developer/2000, you reuse the work done by Oracle's development staff in building the product, with fully compiled, fully debugged, very generalized, built-in functionality and smart defaults. You can ALWAYS write code to change what Developer/2000 does by default, but you don't ALWAYS have to.

>Beware of programmers who are *afraid* of writing code...
>Hire programmers who are afraid of being *forced* to write *bad* code....

Agreed, but beware of and don't hire programmers who write code they don't have to!

>Rennie Allen
>Electrical Engineering Dept.
>Pine Falls Paper Company
>1 Mill Road,
>P.O. Box 10 Pine Falls, MB ROE 1M0
>Phone (204)367-2311
>Fax (204)367-4407
>email: rgallen_at_mbnet.mb.ca

--
-- Dennis Moore, Oracle Corp.
dbmoore_at_oracle.com
dbmoore_at_netcom.com