Powerbuilder is Evil!

Jorgen Sigvardsson

I had the misfortune to port some Powerbuilder crap into Java crap. I've always thought of VB as a blunt knife. Good for sharpening up marshmallow sticks, but nothing I'd want near an operating table. I thought I had seen the bluntest knife of them all, but I was wrong. Powerbuilder is it! (Yuck, just saying the name gives a bad aftertaste). Take 1/3 Basic, 1/3 ad hoc OO-methodology and 1/3 SQL. The language kind of invites you to write crappy code, at least it seems that way judging by the code I'm porting. The inheritance mechanisms are mind boggling. There's like a billion ways to override a function. And with that there is a billion ways how functions are called at runtime. And people complain about virtual in C++! :wtf: If you value your sanity, stay away from Powerbuilder (Sybase product). The US military should bomb Iraq with Powerbuilder box sets. After a month, the Iraqis will run around in the streets like loonies, and Saddam will sit somewhere in his bunker chewing foam. And I'm sure there would be an amendment to the Geneva convention after the deployment of such a horrible weapon! -- Shine, enlighten me - shine Shine, awaken me - shine Shine for all your suffering - shine

Paul Watson

Oh yeah and man but does the Humvee suck at taking the windy, twisty mountain passes around here. My EVO or DB7 Volante are so much better. The Humvee has all that shitty 4wheel drive override diff lock shit. I mean jeesh why the hell they put all the crap in, I thought steering lock in the EVO was bad! The Humvee is such a blunt knife. :| Jörgen, the same reply as to all the "OMG VB sucks" posts: Right tool for the right job. I know of huge corporates who have used Powerbuilder very succesfully.

Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa

Macbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.

Jorgen Sigvardsson

Point taken. ;P True, right tool for the right job. The VB concept is nice, but the language implementation is not. IMO, It's ugly and twisted. The same goes for Powerbuilder. I don't just want a hammer. I'd like a hammer with a good grip, nice design, and made out of an alloy that doesn't break and rust easily. :) I do admit that I'm a bit grumpy right now. Converting all that PB/SQL-code to Java this morning didn't do me any good I guess. I would have been less grumpy if the code I ported hadn't been four huge nearly identical chunks of code (zero reuse). Thankfully, I've arrived at the end of the SQL business. It's time to generate the actual report! Woohoo! :-D -- Shine, enlighten me - shine Shine, awaken me - shine Shine for all your suffering - shine

Joao Vaz

Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: I had the misfortune to port some Powerbuilder crap Yeap , it's pure crap ... I programmed with with powerbuilder 6.0 , 6.1 and 6.5 during 3 months and was the buggiest language that I ever worked it , much worse than VB ... Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: Take 1/3 Basic, 1/3 ad hoc OO-methodology and 1/3 SQL. Yuck , you it resumed well ... Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: The inheritance mechanisms are mind boggling. There's like a billion ways to override a function. And with that there is a billion ways how functions are called at runtime. And people complain about virtual in C++! Tsss , powerbuilder is not for C++ weenies ;P Cheers,Joao Vaz And if your dream is to care for your family, to put food on the table, to provide them with an education and a good home, then maybe suffering through an endless, pointless, boring job will seem to have purpose. And you will realize how even a rock can change the world, simply by remaining obstinately stationary.-Shog9 Remember just because a good thing comes to an end, doesn't mean that the next one can't be better.-Chris Meech

Jason Henderson

Welcome to my world. :(( I've been using it for 5.5 years now and although it is a little less buggy, its still a piece of crap. I prefer VB over powerbuilder if that tells you anything. Unfortunately, our company will probably use it until they put it to sleep. We do have about half of our projects written in C++ though. :)

Jason Henderson
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi

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Jorgen Sigvardsson

Jason Henderson wrote: Welcome to my world. My condolences! Jason Henderson wrote: I prefer VB over powerbuilder if that tells you anything. Right now VB seems like the king of programming languages. I've been avoiding the PB code alltogether for as long as possible. This project is a two-man show, where I've been writing framework code, and the other guy being more active in the actual porting. But now that the framework is 99.99999% complete, I too have to do Powerbuilder. He's progressed quite well, and he's past the biggest slope on the learning curve. I've just started... *sigh*. He just told me that it's a good thing I don't have hair long enough to pull. :) And why is the IDE so totally screwed up in terms of usability?! Do the PB-developers at Sybase know what usability means? Do you think I should send them a thesaurus? During these last 6 hours, I feel like I've aged 6 years. :( -- Shine, enlighten me - shine Shine, awaken me - shine Shine for all your suffering - shine

Jason Henderson

Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: And why is the IDE so totally screwed up in terms of usability?! Do the PB-developers at Sybase know what usability means? Do you think I should send them a thesaurus? PowerBuilder 8 is a little closer to the more modern IDEs but its still got a long way to go. Prior to PB8, it was a nightmare.

Jason Henderson
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi

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