PowerBuilder

Official link to my certification on Oracle University – Oracle APEX Cloud Developer Certified Professional (OCI)

PowerBuilder is a RAD tool to develop desktop client/server apps. PB ruled the market in the 90s when its only competitors were Oracle Forms & Reports and the later entrants – Visual Basic and Delphi which faded away (including VB.NET). However, the marketing for PB was virtually non-existent from the beginning for all its powerful inheritance, DataWindow, data-centric features and it was not updated in a timely manner to meet modern technological advancements, challenges and market trends. The biggest advantage with PB was, it came with everything out-of-the-box and combined with its RAD capabilities, made it highly cost-effective and there is no way its native PowerScript language would get disrupted or replaced by some other language (similar to how the age old SQL and PL/SQL cannot be disrupted). We learn PowerScript just once and use PowerBuilder forever, disruption-free and distraction-free, without having to learn anything else – EVER – unlike the constantly disrupted Code-based web technologies, endlessly – and we were so spoilt by PB.

Powersoft, the original developer of PB did a great job. It got acquired by Sybase who introduced some new half-baked features that never clicked. Later, it got acquired by SAP who released just one minor version from 12.5 to 12.6 and gave it to Appeon who now does the development. Even the highly innovative and powerful features introduced by Appeon – modernizing PB and integrating it with C# and the open-source .NET Core platform, PowerClient, PowerServer, PowerScript Migrator, SnapDevelop C# IDE, modern Themes, Charts, Ribbon Bar and many more – NOTHING improved in the PB job market – not one bit – as it's too late to reinstate PB – the train has already left the station ages ago. The marketing for PB has been very BAD from the beginning – most people in IT never even heard the word "PowerBuilder" in their lifetime!

Currently, PB has a TINY market in Asia (Philippines and India) due to outsourcing and such but even that is fading away, too. Businesses in Asia are now looking for No-Code and Low-Code solutions. I have a friend in Manila, Philippines who owns a development firm, was offering PB development services for years and says, PB development business has faded away – and now, he receives more than 5 enquiries every single day for No-Code and Low-Code project work (he uses bubble.io and APEX) and he is unable to meet the demand.

In a perfect world, PowerServer would make PowerBuilder FUTURE-PROOF from becoming obsolete, but not really (more info on why, below).

2-TIER vs 3-TIER ARCHITECTURE:

• 2-Tier Client/Server architecture can  NEVER be 100% secure  because of the DIRECT connection to the dB – either the user knows the password to the database to login or the developers know the password (for ALL dB environments, including Production!), hardcoded inside the source-code and as part of their work. Because of the 2-Tier architecture and native/binary installed apps, users are  TIED  to their desktops without freedom.

• 3-Tier Cloud architecture  ELIMINATES  this security issue by having an intermediate virtual user that impersonates the current user as an Acting-User so nobody (users/developers) knows the password to the dB which is stored in the middle-tier logic on the server. This INDIRECT connection makes 3-Tier Cloud architecture  HIGHLY SECURE . Cloud apps can be accessed from anywhere.

A vast majority of PB developers abandoned and LEFT the platform for good for other technologies over 2 decades ago but a handful of passionate dinosaurs like me still remained with PB. No one learnt PB and no new projects started on PB in the last over 2 decades. The PB developers who left it decades ago are not coming back and no one is going to learn PB afresh – even if employers sponsor their employees and regardless of PB's modern and future-proof features, now – it's too late.

This resulted in a bizarre and scary situation in the PB world as we dinosaurs all have a minimum of 25 years of experience and we are the LAST generation of PB developers – the last of it – once we retire in the next 5-10 years (I can work for another 15+ years, though), PB will be literally DONE and officially DEAD! It is INEVITABLE, what it is and many clients are not aware of this looming/sneaking danger. In the future, clients would have to visit Retirement Homes to find PB developers 😊. Clients barely have just 5-10 years (which is a tight deadline and a tight squeeze) to modernize their legacy PB apps on a war-footing.  Oracle APEX  is the FREE, Low-Code, RAD tool and the  PERFECT  solution to modernize any legacy apps (e.g., PowerBuilder and Oracle Forms & Reports) and build new apps, quickly and cost-effectively and I've specialized in these areas.

People have been saying for over 2 decades that PB would die soon and I was always the first one to defend such statements saying, "No, not in the near future!" – because I knew PB still had some runway left and I simply LOVE it so much, even today! And I can't believe I'm writing this about PB, now. Due to the above unfortunate situation, I've stopped defending PB's looming and inevitable demise to make sure I don't mislead anybody, unintentionally.

Check out the interesting discussion I started on Appeon's Community Forum on this matter of PB's looming, inevitable demise soon. Contrary to one of my suggestions –

• • Appeon is not interested in bringing back the PowerBuilder Certifications as they used to exist in Powersoft and Sybase days. The course material already exists with Sybase that could be retrieved, updated and offered through online universities like WGU that churns out thousands of students every year with wider reach, more exposure and traction.

  • Appeon says employers should train their employees on PB – but... WHY would any sane employee waste their precious time and entire career on learning an obsolete and dinosaur technology? That's like learning the outdated COBOL from the 1950s, now.

  • Appeon isn't even interested in offering a free/limited Community Edition of PB to developers (like any other software vendor does) so they could learn it and promote it by keeping it in demand and balancing the supply. What would Appeon lose if they offer a free version of outdated PB with limitations like developers can download only an older version of PB, create only max 5 windows with no option to build executables (can run apps only from the IDE in interpreter-mode), etc.? Why would anyone BUY ($ubscribe to) the dinosaur PowerBuilder and also LEARN it in this day and age?? How could anyone learn and practice PB without a free Community Edition? Each and every PB developer is interested in having the Community Edition of PB but Appeon doesn't seem to understand its importance. In other words, if a passionate developer (who religiously stuck with PB for decades of his entire career, even when the vast majority PB developers abandoned it ages ago) doesn't have a job due to extreme scarcity of PB jobs, there is NO way for him to use and keep in touch with PB (because it costs $$ and only employers can afford to provide it for work) so he could keep his skills current and avoid getting rusty.

Developers are the brand ambassadors and the backbone of any software. PB will be dead because the vendor did not take care of the passionate developers of their own tool – even after bringing the issues, the dying job-market and its looming demise to their notice. How can Appeon expect to see a positive outcome for PB by not doing what other vendors are doing for their tools and their developers? It would be Appeon's loss.

Appeon's claims of people registering for accounts to download and use PowerBuilder (in this day and age) –

• 69% of users are 44 years or younger

• 44% of users are 34 years or younger

My discussion here that received comments from many developers from around the world –

The BLEAK future of PowerBuilder and what could be done about it

I've worked on PowerBuilder for 28+ years. I would love to work on the Low-Code APEX for the rest of my career – and beyond... because the future-proof and futuristic APEX is  UNMATCHED  by any other technology, it will NEVER get outdated (only gets better and more and more modern) and it is that GREAT!!

I would also like to work on PowerBuilder projects that have plans to modernize using Oracle APEX.

Cheers!

--
Shekar Reddy
PowerObject!
APEXpert!

PowerBuilder code / functional examples - by PowerObject! [Shekar].

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