About PowerBuilder .NET

The Sybase® PowerBuilder® setup program allows you to install two separate IDEs. The familiar PowerBuilder IDE has been rebranded as PowerBuilder Classic. The new IDE is named PowerBuilder .NET.

You start each IDE from separate items on the Start menu, and you can run multiple sessions of each PowerBuilder IDE simultaneously. The PB125.EXE file opens the PowerBuilder Classic IDE, and the PBSHELL.EXE opens the PowerBuilder .NET IDE.

A set of wizards in PowerBuilder .NET enable you to quickly create a variety of targets for different types of applications. For example, one wizard creates a new Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application or, if you prefer, converts an existing PowerBuilder Classic client/server or .NET Windows Forms target. Other wizards allow you to create .NET Assembly and WCF Service targets from nonvisual user objects. The PB Assembly wizard creates assembly components that you can include in other projects within PowerBuilder .NET. After the wizard generates a target you can modify its properties at any time.

Project painters let you specify how PowerBuilder generates executable applications from your target. You can define multiple projects for the same target, each for a different deployment scenario.

Building applications in PowerBuilder .NET lets you take advantage of language enhancements for fuller .NET compliance than applications designed in PowerBuilder Classic.

• PowerBuilder .NET Architecture
  PowerBuilder .NET applications, including system classes and system functions, are built on top of the PowerBuilder WPF runtime library.
• WPF Control Classes
  The runtime classes in a PowerBuilder .NET application maintain the traditional PowerBuilder control hierarchy, but inherit from the Microsoft WPF control hierarchy.
• Semantic Differences
  There are a number of semantic differences between PowerBuilder .NET and PowerBuilder Classic.
• Runtime Requirements for PowerBuilder .NET
  The applications you create in PowerBuilder .NET automatically reference several .NET assemblies that must be present in the global assembly cache (GAC) on the design time and runtime computers.
• Advantages of WPF Applications
  WPF applications allow you to take advantage of the best attributes of diverse systems, such as DirectX (3-D and hardware acceleration), Adobe Flash (animation support), and HTML (declarative markup and easy deployment).
• Modified and Unsupported Features in PowerBuilder .NET
  Some features in PowerBuilder Classic are not supported in PowerBuilder .NET. Other features are partially supported or use a different method to obtain similar results or to display similar functionality.
• Behavior Changes for Runtime Controls
  The .NET and WPF environments affect the behavior of several PowerBuilder controls at runtime.
• Conditional Compilation in PowerBuilder .NET Targets
  Although you do not need to use conditional code blocks in PowerBuilder .NET to reference .NET classes as in PowerBuilder Classic, you can still use the PBDOTNET and DEBUG preprocessor symbols for conditional compilation in PowerBuilder .NET targets.
• Memory Tuning for Large Applications
  OutOfMemory errors can occur when you migrate, compile, or build a large PowerBuilder .NET application. To prevent these errors, you can turn on 3G memory support for your operating system.