Re: PB 4.0 vs Oracle Forms

smuench_at_oracle.com (Steven P. Muench) wrote:
>
> >> This is urgent.
> >> I need more information about why I should choose PB over Forms or vice
> >> versa. Please respond soon. Thank you.
> >

If you are a experienced Oracle Forms or Reports developer than it makes a lot of sense to go with the latest offering from Oracle. Their new products are extremely integrated with their databases and the learning curve is not too steep. On the other hand, if you are not an Oracle shop and have no experience with their tools, then PowerBuilder is better of the two. The reasons are:

1. PowerBuilder can run comfortably on a 486 machine with 4-6 Meg of memory. Oracle will run slow on the same machine and most likely require more memory.
2. PB connects to all the major SQL DB's and ships with native database drivers. I don't think Forms and Reports works with anything beside Oracle DB's at this point. If they do I am not aware of it.
3. PB lets you full utilize the Windows environment. Forms makes use of a proprietary framework that does not allow you to directly code to Windows events. Despite this, I find their framework to be extremely robust and lets you create bullet-proof application in record time.
4. PB is object-oriented and provides support for inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation. When I reviewed Oracle's CDE Tools a year ago, their products did not have such capabilities.
5. PB has an pretty decent debugger and offers several utilities to help with code management. I cannot comment on the debugging facilities of Oracle's tools because it has been a year since I last looked at their product. I would definitely ask questions in this area though, becuase the debugger I saw at that time was next to useless.
6. PB is a mature product with an agressive development team. You can count on a new release every 18 months or less.
7. PB is a powerful tool that is easy to learn. It hides a of the complexities of developing in Windows. Though it has a short learning curve, it takes about 1 year or more to truly become proficient in the tool.
8. PB has an integrated development environment. You design screen and report in the same Painter. Oracle's tools are not that way. Oracle Forms, Reports and Graphics are separate products with a unique feel to each.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed are my own and not the company I

             work for. Received on Wed Mar 22 1995 - 22:52:28 CET