do you or have you ever used PowerBuilder?

[NuclearNed]

The setup: The company for which I work has a ton of legacy apps written in PowerBuilder 6.5, a product that was created for Windows 95. There has been an ongoing discussion for the past few years about a migration path forward. My immediate manager is a PowerBuilder diehard, mainly because she doesn't know any other language. She wants to upgrade our PowerBuilder products to the latest version and stick with PB. In the short term, this would probably be the cheapest and easiest solution to our aging code problem.

The other option is for us to gradually rewrite and migrate all the PB apps to something else, most likely VS.NET (VC++, MFC, or C#). For years I have been programming in these languages as well as PB, and I am probably my company's most zealous proponent of migrating to one or all of these. I think in the long term, this is a vastly better solution than sticking with PB.

I hate PB; I think there are few if any crappier languages that I have ever used. Apparently most companies that have used PB feel the same way, because my understanding is that PB's user base has been declining for several years. PB is buggy and doesn't give you a lot of "power" options like real programming languages (i.e. there are lots of advanced things that you just can't do in PB that you can do in VC++). My personal opinion is that most companies that still use PB only do so because they have a lot of legacy code; in other words, nobody uses PB because they think its a great language.

So what is the general feeling out there about PB? If you previously used PB but now use something else, what was your rationale for switching? What benefits could we expect by switching to .NET?

(I have my own answers to these questions, but it would help strengthen my arguments if other professionals would back me up).

Thanks,
Dean

 

[KB]

I worked for one company and they stopped using Powerbuilder because .Net people were easier to find and tended to be more productive. The UI controls were easier to use, along with the Development Environment and .Net was being integrated into all other MS products. I was a .Net person so I only heard this from others.

 

[Spydermag68]

VS.NET is the way to go. I can do unmanaged MFC code and .NET in the same program, but the M$ wave of the future is VS.NET

 

[Rookie]

Powerbuilder... I haven't touched it since '99 and that's when i took it in college.
VS.NET++

 

[DT4K]

I haven't used PB, but I'd make the migration just because there are so many resources out there for .Net. It's going to get harder to find people with PB skills and even just to find PB information as it is used less and less in the business world.

 

[NuclearNed]

All good points, people. Keep them coming.

 

[DT4K]

Here's an argument that may convince the management types:

As PB skills become harder to find, the cost of expertise is going to increase. So when some issue comes up that requires an expert in PB, you will have to bring in a consultant at $250/hr instead of hiring some guy from the local university who will know everything there is to know about .Net and will only charge you $50/hr.

EDIT: I don't know if any of that is true, but it seems to be the case with things like cobol and it sounds good.