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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.development:2729 comp.lang.basic.visual:27176 comp.lang.basic.visual.misc:649 comp.databases.sybase:11415 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!ns1.unicomp.net!unicomp.net!ronnyong From: ronnyong@unicomp.net (Ronny Ong) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.lang.basic.visual,comp.lang.basic.visual.misc,comp.databases.sybase Subject: Re: Visual Basic vs. PowerBuilder Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 10:23:01 LOCAL Organization: UniComp Technologies International Corp -- Internet Service Lines: 34 Message-ID: <ronnyong.230.00DD9DA9@unicomp.net> References: <davebo.18.0010EDAE@mcs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: unicomp1.unicomp.net X-Newsreader: Trumpet for Windows [Version 1.0 Rev B final beta #4] In article <davebo.18.0010EDAE@mcs.com> davebo@mcs.com (Dave Borowiec) writes: >Has anyone done a comparison of these 2 tools? We are running Sybase System These threads are really a dime a dozen and if you step back and take a real, hard, long look at the issues, what you'll find is that PowerBuilder kicks butt if you are in a traditional, corporate MIS (i.e. COBOL background) environment. Visual Basic rules if you are more of a pedal-to-the-metal coding shop. Ultimately, you _can_ do anything with either tool. (A few things require nitty gritty code in one that don't in the other, but there are always other things where the situation is reversed. It all depends on exactly what you want to do.) Ultimately, they cost about the same _if_ you really want/need to equip VB with all the extras that PowerSoft throws in their box. (Maybe you do, maybe you don't.) People will try to tell you that PB requires less coding. That's only true if you _don't_ buy all the add-ons that raise VB's price to match PB's. PB is buggy, but so is VB. PowerSoft has merged with Sybase, casting shadows of doubt on them as a supplier. Many people despise Microsoft, too, though. PB and VB both have incomplete object models. PowerScript is very similar to Visual Basic in the language department. We handle complex application development projects that most of the small "consultant" and contract shops won't touch for under $100 an hour. We find that PB, VB, ObjectView, SQLWindows ... they all make easy stuff easy, but the hard stuff is still hard. Things like unbalanced control breaks and multiple types of detail bands in reporting are largely unaddressed by anything but code. The tools all have some sort of auto-lookup capability in forms design, but they never have automatic explosion of component detail. We chose not to go with PB because if you're doing hard stuff, you'll be writing code for it anyway, so might as well buy the cheaper tool. We haven't eval'ed PB4 yet, but if we ever find a tool that does the hard stuff without code, we'll jump in a heartbeat.