Re: Forms 4.5 vs Powerbuilder

In article <3r3mpf$hhc_at_ankh.iia.org>, jstarwoo_at_haven.ios.com (Jim Starwood) says:
>
>Matthew M. Lih (matt.lih_at_trw.com) wrote:
>: In article <3qnjjp$ckt_at_hazel.Read.TASC.COM>, Bob Ward <rjward_at_tasc.com> says:
>: up Powerbuilder. Powerbuilder seems to require a substantial
>: amount of code to do things like connect to the database, which
>
>If six lines overall is substantial, one of us needs to go back to class.
>

Okay, substantial was a poor choice, but the point is, I have to worry about things like that which I don't have to worry about in Oracle.

I should point out, too, that I don't have formal training in either, but I found Forms easier to pick up *for the kinds of things I need to do* than Powerbuilder. Your mileage may vary.

>: If you're currently an Oracle shop and want to continue to use
>: Oracle servers exclusively, I would say Forms is a good choice.
>: If you need to access non-Oracle databases, you may want to go
>: to Powerbuilder.
>
>This is stupid rationale. Take a quick look at the product yourself,
>it's manageable for the kids of things Forms does, and has good
>integration potential to other Windows applications. Don't be an island.

Manageable is not the same thing as desirable.

What's stupid about it? Forms works, and is about as good as PB, so why complicate things by going to a different vendor?

I stand by my statement. While Forms and PB have similar capabilities, the paradigms are different enough that I think it's worthwhile to go to Forms 4.X if you already have expertise with Forms 3.X.

Forms also has increased its integration capabilities (OLE and I believe VBX controls).

I will alter the second part of the statement. I don't know if Forms would be at all workable with a non-Oracle back end.

Matthew M. Lih
matt.lih_at_trw.com Received on Thu Jun 08 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST