PB 5 to PB 9?

Hello,
I have to help a client decide whether he should migrate a PB 5 application
to PB 9. The current application uses a SQL/Server 6.5 database. They want
to upgrade the database to SQL/Server 2000. They wonder if they should also
upgrade PB5 to PB9 at the same time. The application will not be rewritten,
only the minimum would be done to make it works on PB9. What would be the
benefits of migrating to PB 9? What is the recommended configuration of the
workstations running deployed PB 9 applications?
Also, what about PB 5 with SQL/Server 2000?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,
David.

Precision, by SQL/Server I mean Microsoft SQL/Server.

"David Gagn�"  wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
> I have to help a client decide whether he should migrate a PB 5
application
> to PB 9. The current application uses a SQL/Server 6.5 database. They want
> to upgrade the database to SQL/Server 2000. They wonder if they should
also
> upgrade PB5 to PB9 at the same time. The application will not be
rewritten,
> only the minimum would be done to make it works on PB9. What would be the
> benefits of migrating to PB 9? What is the recommended configuration of
the
> workstations running deployed PB 9 applications?
> Also, what about PB 5 with SQL/Server 2000?
>
> Any advice appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> David.
>
>

Proceeding with PB5 would be an incredibly high risk venture. Not only
is PB5 unsupported by Sybase, but the only way PB5 can connect to SQL
Server 2K, DBLib, is unsupported by Microsoft. If anything goes wrong,
about the most support you'll get is a sympathetic spouse. 

Benefits of upgrading are hard to say, because it is somewhat akin to
saying what is the best part of Disney World. It's going to be
different for most people. It could be anything from run time UI
enhancements (flat tool bars, XP style, new controls) to electronic
report exchange opportunities (HTML, PDF, XML). Of course, one killer
question may be, if they are upgrading their DBMS, why? The old DBLib
interface won't be able to take advantage of new SQL Server 2K
features, so the OLE DB interface may be the killer feature for the
upgrade. Have a look at all the new features for all the versions
you're bypassing to decide for yourself:
http://www.techno-kitten.com/Changes_to_PowerBuilder/changes_to_powerbuilder.html

Recommended configuration is pretty hard to say as well. An app that
caches one million rows of data in memory is going to require more
memory than an app that scans the registry for a given string. I'd be
more concerned about minimum OS requirements than anything else (NT,
2K, XP).

Good luck,

Terry [TeamSybase] and Sequel the techno-kitten

On 6 Jan 2004 18:48:42 -0800, "David Gagn�" 
wrote:

>I have to help a client decide whether he should migrate a PB 5 application
>to PB 9. The current application uses a SQL/Server 6.5 database. They want
>to upgrade the database to SQL/Server 2000. They wonder if they should also
>upgrade PB5 to PB9 at the same time. The application will not be rewritten,
>only the minimum would be done to make it works on PB9. What would be the
>benefits of migrating to PB 9? What is the recommended configuration of the
>workstations running deployed PB 9 applications?
>Also, what about PB 5 with SQL/Server 2000?
>
>Any advice appreciated.


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