Welcome to TechWave! I can't believe it's that time of year again. To be honest, I always struggle for a topic for the TechWave issue. I was going to write about "Where Do We Go from Here" or "PowerBuilder and the Future," but both topics are overwritten and seem a bit predictable. I decided that for this issue I would share my PowerBuilder experiences from the past year - the demand and how shops are using it. If you've been reading my editorials you'll know that PowerBuilder is only one of the many tools that I use. I think this gives me an unbiased view of PowerBuilder in general.

Is PowerBuilder Going Away?
No. PowerBuilder has not experienced the growth it enjoyed from 1995 to 2000, but it is not going away. Large organizations continue to use PowerBuilder to build new applications as well as maintain older ones. The initial Java hype is over.

Two years ago, there was a prevailing opinion that PowerBuilder applications would be rewritten in Java. Once programmers became experienced in the capabilities of Java, it was apparent that Java solves completely different problems than PowerBuilder. Mainly, if you're writing client/server applications with complicated user interfaces and business rules, PowerBuilder is still the choice over Java. I actually worked on a Java-to-PowerBuilder conversion project last month (snickering allowed here). Programmers continue to push PowerBuilder over Java for writing client/server applications. Managers like PowerBuilder simply because it's cheaper to build an application in PB.

Where Are the Jobs?
The PowerBuilder community is a microcosm of the IT market. Jobs are scarce all around the U.S. I think this will change in the first quarter of next year. Most IT managers I talk to have little or no money left for the rest of 2002. Most, however, expect a 5-7% budget increase in 2003. New projects are already slated; they just need money to fund them. I know of many new PowerBuilder applications that are ready to go - if only the cash was available.

Is PowerBuilder Used in Internet Applications?
Yes and no. EAS certainly has a niche in certain markets. In the financial and government markets EAS continues to be a strong player. Sybase has done a decent job convincing PowerBuilder shops that the next step (Internet development) in software development is using EAS and its tools. This approach leverages the PowerBuilder skill set of the employees. However, EAS has failed to penetrate mainstream markets. I know of only a few shops that are using EAS without PowerBuilder, so it will continue to be a bit player in the application server market. Any argument stating that EAS is a threat to WebSphere or JRun is naive.

Training
The demand for PowerBuilder training remains soft. Fewer and fewer third-party training companies hold regular public PowerBuilder classes. However, I don't think this is a sign that interest and usage of PowerBuilder are declining. Remember that it's now a mature product (I'm not yet prepared to say legacy). As a product matures, so does the demand for training. Eight years ago the PowerBuilder skill set was nonexistent. Shops had to send programmers for training in PowerBuilder and object-oriented programming. Now that organizations have the PowerBuilder skill set in-house, the need for training will naturally decline. I do see, however, a medium demand for migration classes, mostly from version 6.x to 8.x.

What's Next
I'm excited about version 9. This is the first version I've been excited about since version 5. Even though PowerBuilder missed the boat for mainstream Internet applications, I still believe it can be a major player in the Web services arena. PowerBuilder 9 contains the tools to do this. Features such as the JSP authoring facility, XML DataWindow functionality, EJB server applications, and using PowerBuilder as a Web service consumer are very exciting. They can make PowerBuilder a serious player for years to come.