Re: PowerBuilder Vs Oracle Developer

In article <47u0ds$lr7_at_butch.lmsc.lockheed.com>, dherzstein_at_lmsc.lockheed.com (Dave Herzstein) wrote:

> I am participating in a committee which will decide between using
> PowerBuilder and Oracle Developer/2000 for a new C/S system.
> My experience is with PowerBuilder only (and only with Sybase).
> Several aspects of the proposed system are given:
>
> * The DBMS will be Oracle
> * Workstations will include Windows PC’s, MAC’s, SUN’s and SGI’s
> * Developers will be experienced programmers (but no GUI experience)
>
> I would like comparative comments concerning the following points
> being evaluated by the study group:
>
> * Efficiency of Oracle database support -- good, but
 slow. you get voice,web support
> * Usefulness of documentation -- if you can
 afford them, get the paper versions
> * Maturity and reliability of installed base -- oracle has
 been around since 78, sybase since 88?
> * Cross-platform availability -- oracle runs on
 everything except SCO (someonex got it on linux even)
> * Ease of use for developer -- PRO*C is easier
 than DBLIB/CTLIB, PL*SQL same as isql
> * Responsiveness of technical/customer support -- good, you
 get a number and a callback
> * Vendor reliability and survivability -- oracle will
 outlive them all
> * Amount of code needed to be written -- same, Oracle PL*SQL
 is analogous to Sybase Transact SQL
> * Ability to display images of various formats -- same, Oracle has
 long, sybase has raw
> * Users groups/forums -- just look at the newsgroups,
 many more for oracle
> * Ease of learning -- Oracle university courses are
 many, expensive
> * Workstation resources required -- depends
> * Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and VBX -- both Forms 4.5 and
 Power Objects can have them
> * Integrated architecture -- the best in the world, pick from no
 less than 5 flavors of the server
> * Functionality -- motherhood
> * Interface with external programs -- supports pipes
> * Scalability (for software distribution) -- motherhood
> * Portability (for native feel-and-look) -- check out Oracle
 Power Objects, its better than Forms 4.5
> * Object-oriented language environment -- check out Oracle
 Power Objects, its better than Forms 4.5
> * 3rd Party Support (for analysis, legacy systems, DBA) -- ask about
 Oracle Partners
> * Licensing policy -- motherhood, Oracle costs more, but
 has more
> * Business graphics capabilities -- check out Oracle Graphics
> * Integration with CASE tools -- check out Oracle Case, a
 monolith, better really need it
>
> Either e-mail (dherzstein_at_lmsc.lockheed.com) or follow-up postings
> (comp.soft-sys.powerbuilder or comp.databases.oracle) would be
> appreciated. Please note which product(s) you have experience with.
> --
> Dave Herzstein
> Sunnyvale, California
> dherzstein_at_lmsc.lockheed.com

incidentally, Oracle has no less than three GUI tools, i prefer Power Objects over Forms 4.5, but
Oracle will tell you Forms 4.5 is flagship, and is better than Powerbuilder, id challenge that,
and opt for Power Objects due to simplicity, and rapid development cycle. Received on Thu Nov 09 1995 - 00:00:00 CET