PowerBuilder for the Mobile

BANGALORE: Sybase, Inc. has announced the beta of Sybase Pocket PowerBuilder, enabling developers to leverage their PowerBuilder expertise and applications for the mobile arena. PowerBuilder developers can use this offering in the rapid application development (RAD) platform to target Windows CE-based devices. The patented Sybase DataWindow will be extended to mobile environments.

But PowerBuilder has lost a lot of its users to Java, over the years. But Sybase claims that PowerBuilder is easier to use than Java and trumpet the fact that PowerBuilder is a 4GL. Support for other platforms are on the cards — although Pocket PowerBuilder runs only on Windows CE devices right now.

"We are long-time PowerBuilder users because of its superior rapid application development environment and innovative DataWindow technology, both of which significantly speed application development," said Chris Pollach, president of Software Tool and Die. "We are excited to now use these same capabilities for mobile development, enabling us to meet our customers’ need for sophisticated mobile applications much more quickly than we expected."

"Enterprises are looking to leverage their existing technology and data as a way to reduce development costs and speed time to market," said Dr. Raj Nathan, senior vice president and general manager, Sybase Enterprise Solutions Division. "With Pocket PowerBuilder, enterprises will be able to extend their enterprise applications to mobile environments without requiring new IT investments or development skills, making mobile computing accessible to PowerBuilder developers."

Developers interested in joining the beta program can find more information online at www.sybase.com/pocketpb. The beta software is currently scheduled to become available on April 18, 2003. Feature highlights of Pocket PowerBuilder include:

• Pocket PowerBuilder will deliver the first 4GL IDE for mobile development.



• Extending the patented Sybase DataWindow to mobile environments, enabling dynamic data access with display formatting and data manipulation capabilities – all without coding.



• Introducing tight integration with SQL Anywhere Studio, the market-leading mobile database and enterprise synchronization solution, simplifying the creation of database-powered mobile enterprise applications.