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PowerObject !
- PowerBuilder
- Wednesday, 12 October 2022 05:17 AM UTC
Just sharing a few concerns about the bleak future of PowerBuilder here and what could be done about it...
We all know PowerBuilder apps work like a rock - surviving major O/S upgrades (even without any PB upgrades) - and can last 20 years, 50 years, 75 years, 100 years... as it is now future-proof with things like PowerServer.
So, what's the issue? The issue is - no one learnt PowerBuilder - newly - in the last over 20+ years and no new projects were started in PB for over 20+ years (only maintaining existing PB apps). Whoever is out there are all dinosaur developers like us still clinging on to PB because PB knowledge lasts a lifetime - it is learn-once and keep-forever native desktop technology with everything out of the box, unlike web technologies that need constant learning of newer languages, libraries, frameworks, platforms evolving frequently (web is a lifetime of learning of mashup technologies). Which is why, every PB developer has a minimum of 25 years of experience in PB. I chuckle when recruiters call me cluelessly looking for a junior PB developer with just 5 years experience (because they want to pay less) and I tell them they won’t find any. PB developer community is different.
People have been saying for 25 years PB is going to die and it has survived because of this tiny leftover group doing just maintenance projects. This tiny group of passionate PB developers are going to retire in a few years from now - for sure. Maybe companies will find replacements with difficulty and paying even more (due to shortage of skilled PB developers) but those new hires will be more or less in the same age group who are about to retire in a couple of years too. It is like prolonging a patient's life with medications with no permanent cure but only imminent death with painful side-effects. Sure, PowerBuilder apps can last 100+ years but who is going to be there around to support PB apps - even a few years from now (leave alone 100+ years)? On the other hand, futuristic languages that were born to live in the cloud such as Java, C# will be around for much longer than 100 years with a vibrant and ACTIVE developer community still around to support them. PB may not have died in 25 years but just one generation change of PB developers and PB's death is imminent. There will be a dire attrition of PB developers soon - it is just a matter of time. Appeon's profits will prolly go down resulting in increase in license subscription fees. I don't know of any other technology that has this weird/bizarre situation.
Companies who realize this imminent danger early on would move away from PowerBuilder - or - Appeon could bring more awareness in the industry about PB's cost-effective and rapid-app-development features - for the sake of its future. Things are not going to happen or change magically if we don’t do nothing!
1) Offer a free Community version of PowerBuilder (it's a shame there is still none so far for all its powerful, rapid development and cost-effective features). Virtually, every other technology has free community editions of their software except PB. What will Appeon lose by offering a limited free version of PB? A free version will only gain more traction and add more to their bottom-line. Who is going to "buy" PB spending $$ these gloomy days of PB - and also learn it these days? Why would anyone do it?? There are less than 2 PowerBuilder jobs in the whole of USA and this has been same the pathetic situation for years now! The addition of killer features like PowerClient, PowerServer, SnapDevelop, PowerScript Migrator, integration with C# and .NET, Themes, Ribbon Bar, etc. have not changed its situation in the job market at all - not one bit - which is proof enough that employers are not interested in PB anymore (and obviously nobody is interested in learning PB newly). Companies and developers who left PB for good decades ago ain't coming back! We cannot ride on a boat that relies only on jobs "maintaining" existing legacy apps.
2) Bring back the Certifications. Every other technology has certifications except PB. There used to be Certified PowerBuilder Developer (CPD)'s from Powersoft and Sybase decades ago (when PowerBuilder was RULING the market and heck, there even used to be a pbjobs.com job board too exclusively for PB jobs) but not anymore - they were gone a long time ago! Grab the course materials from Sybase, update and add more to it, collaborate with universities like Western Governors University and others, offer PowerBuilder as a course track in addition to the C# and Java tracks they already have in Software Development degree programs. WGU is a huge online-only university churning out thousands of students every year, unlike traditional offline universities that can only churn out in dozens maybe. We can only imagine the amount of exposure PB can get from such strategic partnerships.
You could also offer PowerBuilder at the Associate Degree level - as its main course topic (software development, commercial computing…).
You could offer separate course tracks as Intro-level with PowerBuilder, PowerClient during year 1 and Advanced-level with PFC, PowerServer, SnapDevelop, PowerScript Migrator, C#, etc. during year 2. There is so much that can be done to safeguard PB's future before it is too late -
https://www.wgu.edu/online-it-degrees/bachelors-programs.html
https://www.wgu.edu/online-it-degrees/software-development-bachelors-program.html
Appeon should manage the course content while universities like WGU could manage the course offerings, training, fees, marketing, certifications/degrees, credits…
Unless PB is offered as a free Community edition and introduced at the University levels exposing students (future developers) to it, there is not much scope for PB's future and no amount of life-support could save it (I had to select "Critical" as the Priority for this topic to emphasize the importance of this matter). Currently, only Java, C#, C++, Python and JavaScript are offered at colleges/universities and these languages are flourishing for a reason! How can Appeon expect a positive outcome by not doing what others are doing?
And this is coming from me who has been doing PowerBuilder - passionately - for as long as I can remember.
Thoughts? Any other concerns or ideas?
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PowerObject!
Shekar Reddy
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