Semantic Differences

There are a number of semantic differences between PowerBuilder .NET and PowerBuilder Classic.

The main semantic differences are listed below:

• A "solution" in PowerBuilder .NET is equivalent to a "workspace" in PowerBuilder Classic. A solution file is saved with a PBWX extension, rather than the PBW extension used in PowerBuilder Classic. The Solution Explorer in PowerBuilder .NET allows you to peruse all the objects in a solution, and is equivalent to the System Tree in PowerBuilder Classic.
• A "target" in PowerBuilder .NET is saved with a PBTX extension, rather than the PBT extension used in PowerBuilder Classic. A target file in both PowerBuilder IDEs is equivalent to a Visual Studio "project." The Find and Replace dialog box that PowerBuilder .NET uses from the Visual Studio isolated shell has a "current project" selection that actually applies to the current PowerBuilder target, not the current project. Project objects in PowerBuilder are contained inside targets.
• A "library" or "PBL" in PowerBuilder .NET is a folder containing the source files for all objects in a PowerBuilder library, while in PowerBuilder Classic, the PBL is a binary file containing the compiled code as well as the source code for all objects in the library.

  The PBL directory in PowerBuilder .NET must have a PBL extension, and it must contain a PBLX file. Although you can add other files, including PowerBuilder source files, to the library directories using file management tools, the PowerBuilder .NET Solution Explorer recognizes only the files registered in the PBLX. You can register PowerBuilder source files either by creating them in the IDE or by importing them, as in PowerBuilder Classic.

• A "Window control" in WPF applications can host only a single control, while in PowerBuilder Classic, a window is a container control that can host multiple controls. By default, to work around this limitation, PowerBuilder .NET places a Grid container control in every WPF Window control that you create. However, PowerBuilder .NET also lets you replace the Grid control with other panel types, and you can change the default by making a different container control selection in the WPF Window wizard. The default panel type for windows that you migrate from PowerBuilder Classic is a Canvas container control.

  As a corollary to this syntactic difference, controls that are inside a GroupBox in PowerBuilder .NET belong to the GroupBox and not to the container of the GroupBox. When you migrate a PowerBuilder Classic application with radio button controls inside a GroupBox, the migration wizard automatically attributes the radio buttons to the GroupBox in the migrated application. Therefore, if you make the GroupBox invisible at runtime, the radio buttons will also be invisible.

  For resize events in applications that you migrate to PowerBuilder .NET, this difference in processing may require you to comment out any script that changes the position of the radio button controls inside a GroupBox. However, the migration wizard does not attribute other types of controls to a GroupBox, only radio buttons. The other types of controls are attributed to a panel control during migration.