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Powerbuilder 11.5.1 on Windows 8?

vlad1
Participant
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Hi,

Sorry if this was asked before - my company still uses SQL Anywhere 11 and Powerbuilder 11.5.1 (4011) as the main development tool, and would prefer not to upgrade to Powerbuilder 12 yet. However, we just need to know what are the experiences of running PB and developing on it on a Windows 8 (probably 64-bit) platform? I did find only one report about a possible issue on google, but would be interested mainly in seeing if there are other people using it on Windows 8 and would they give it a clean bill of health on that OS?

All info warmly appreciated.

Thanks

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Former Member
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Hello,

All answers are for running deployed PB 11.5 application on Win8, and it seems this work.

I will only add that developing with PB 11.5 on Windows 8 doesn’t work. The installer fails and it's not possible to install PB 11.5.1 on Windows 8.

Former Member
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Hi Alex;

   The IDE not being installable or working in W8 does not surprise me as MS-Windows 7 certification (compliance) was only attained in PB v12.5.1. So you might want to think about upgrading your PB version for W8. However, I must state that even PB 12.5.2 is not officially certified for W8 by SAP at this time.

FYI: http://certification.sybase.com

Good luck!

Regards ... Chris

vlad1
Participant
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Ah, this is useful to know. As it happens, we were getting ready to purchase a few new machines for the development, and seeing that we still do not want to upgrade to PB 12, it would seem that it is better to stick with Windows 7?

It's good to know that PB 11.5.1 applications will run fine on Win 8, but hearing this, that basically makes it impossible to develop for it? Or is there some sort of trick for the installation and preparing the deployment?

Thanks!

Former Member
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Deployment of our 10.5 PB apps on windows 8 or windows server 2012 did not seem in any way different than on Win 7 64 or server 2008 - same code runs in both environments. You do need to know how to find your way around.  I dont know if windows 8 supports a vm shell but we've been developing in WIndows XP under Win7 using the built in enviroment.  So worse case you get some new WIn 8 machines - you can run vm and pick the OS of your choice (if vm works on 😎

former_member190719
Active Contributor
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Ah, this is useful to know. As it happens, we were getting ready to purchase a few new machines for the development, and seeing that we still do not want to upgrade to PB 12, it would seem that it is better to stick with Windows 7?

After using Windows 8 for a while, I'd have to say that you should stick with Windows 7 because Windows 8 sucks.  It sucks more than Vista.  That's just my opinion though.

Former Member
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Hi Bruce;

   I'll join you and throw my vote in on W8 for the "sucks" side as well!  

Regards ... Chris

Former Member
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While I totally agree that W8 sucks. I have had no "New" issues in getting PB12 or PB9 to work. The main issue I has was related to placing DLLs in the correct Windows directory for the 64bit machine. My PB9 application converted without any issues and runs fine.

I was able to find some freeware to get the "START" button back. but some of the Windows utilities will only run in what I call "Tablet Mode".

former_member190719
Active Contributor
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Mind sharing waht those utilities are that get back the Start button? I've tried installing the 8.1 preview, but it and the VirtualBox client I'm running it in don't agree. I've taken all the steps that are supposed to resolve it, but with no success.

Former Member
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http://www.classicshell.net/ allows you quite a bit of configuration as well. If I slip into one of the WIN8 Apps, using Alt-Tab gets me back quickly.

former_member190719
Active Contributor
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Thanks.  I actually managed to resolve my issues with the Windows 8.1 preview.  Well, except for one.  It basically saves your documents but blows away any reference to installed programs.  So now I get to determine what you need to do to install PowerBuilder 12.5 on Windows 8.1. 

vlad1
Participant
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Oh I really believe you that Win8 sucks major time. When I saw that "metro" look about it and heard that they did away with the Start button, I think I wanted to cry a little bit.

Well, one useful thing and our biggest headache was the question will 11.5.1 application work on Windows 8, just in case that our clients migrate, however unlikely. That's the main thing, and yes, it works. Being able to install a PB 11.5.1 and develop/deploy on it would be a plus, but if I understand everyone here correctly, there is no some 'trick' before or after PB installation to make it work for development?

And yes, I would much prefer to stay on Windows 7. But the opinion is that we may as well get just one machine on Win8 and try to develop/test on it. In the end we'll probably stay with Win7 64x, but I'd just like to know that we have explored all Win8 possibilities.

Thx

Former Member
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I've just tried to Install PB 11.5.1 On a Windows 8.1 VM and it installed and starts correctly.

Has anyone tried this again?

I'll try to build my application on it in the next days.

It looks like it's getting hard to find Win 7...

Former Member
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I use Pokki as my W8.1 Start button replacement.  It's not perfect, but it sure makes life so much easier to get more of a W7 look and feel.

Answers (9)

Answers (9)

Former Member
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I have been using PB 11.5.1 on my development computer using Windows 8.0/8.1 for about a year.  The only problem is a strange one with dw retrieval arguments where if there is more than one, they cannot be added/edited.  Our produce runs fine on Windows 8 both Windows and Appeon deployments.

For the Windows 8 haters, 8.1 is much better than 8.0 as the Start button actually gives you some navigation ability.

Former Member
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Hi Mike;

Yes, this is a known issue with the PB but (most likely) not related to the MS-Windows version!

1) The problem only occurs on INTEL based processor machines.

  - I have only AMD machines (for the most part) and have not had this issue on Vista, W7, W8

  - On my INTEL based HP machine I did encounter this

2) For INTEL based machines, anyone of the following software can affect the DW painter as you described ...

- HP's "Digital Persona" installed

- DisplayFusion multi-monitor tool

- Teamviewer

- Tablet PC Input Service

etc (as a small example)


Resolution: You need to locate the offending software on your PC that is interfering with the DW Painter. I would suggest closing all non-essential software, disabling non-essential services, not using the above mentioned 3rd part software, until the problem corrects itself.

   Once you know the software interfering with PB - you can maybe work around its use (ie: only when needed and then shut it down immediately before using PB again).


HTH ... Good luck!


Regards ... Chris

Former Member
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I am having the same problem with deploying powerbuilder classic 12.5.2511.0 smartclient to a windows 8 laptop.  I downloads the setup file but never goes any further.  Thoughts?

Former Member
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Hi Vlad

We have a PB 10.5 Classic App for the entertainment and have been deploying it with success to users with Windows 8.

As with Windows 7 64 bit, if one is using ODBC once must be careful to use the 32 bit drivers and 32 bit ODBC found with the Windows/SysWOW64 directory and not the default odbc drivers.

Best regards

Glenn

vlad1
Participant
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Thank you, Glenn

Former Member
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Hi Vlad,

our main application is quite large (no PFC, it uses our own framework and it consists of roughly 30 PBLs). We use PB 11.5.1 and SQL Server 2005/2008/R2 (SNC).

We were very cautious not to have it installed on Win8 machines before we upgrade to a newer PB edition, but two new customers came with Win8 64bit and they had no intention to roll back to Win7.

Our app performs just fine...to tell you the truth the only thing that I struggled was to setup SQL Server 2008R2 in the Win8 machines. Too many compatibility warnings so I took them to SQL Server 2012.

vlad1
Participant
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Thanks Panos, all feedback is important, and relieved that it is positive

Any experience with actually running Powerbuilder on Windows 8 as the development environment? I do know there was a slight glitch with coding datawindows with retrieval arguments on Win 7 (only x64 though!), so it would be interested to know if any quirks were noticed on Win 8?

Cheers

Former Member
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Has anyone had luck with other versions of PB running on Win8?  I just installed PB 9 and the development environment works. I can run and debug PB applications from the development environment, BUT I have been unable to run an executable. Nothing happens at all. Any thoughts / suggestions? ...other then upgrading PB.

vlad1
Participant
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Hi guys,

Thanks very much for all info. Heiko's answer looks very promising.

Bruce & Chris, thanks (it was Powerbuilder 11.5, not 12.5 by the way). I guess it is an obvious answer, and while I don't want to make it sound like an excuse - just can't find time for VM experimentation right now.

However, I was fairly certain that if there were any major compatibility issues, surely we'd hear by now here? Our application is fairly simple - SQL Anywhere 11 database engine & network service, and Powerbuilder application connecting through good old ODBC.

We experienced absolutely no issues with Windows on any platform, and I mean *any*. Windows 95, 98, NT4, 2000, Me, XP, Vista, 7, Servers 2003 and 2008. Hope the trend will continue.

former_member190719
Active Contributor
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>>Bruce & Chris, thanks (it was Powerbuilder 11.5, not 12.5 by the way).

Understood that.  Just not using that version anymore, so couldn't speak to that.  Just passing along what I knew.

Former Member
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Hi Vlad;

  I have had both success and failure depending on what O/S & DBMS connectivity features your application(s) use. The only way to know for sure is to do something like Bruce did and test your PB 11.x application under a real W8 physical or virtualized environment.

Regards ... Chris

former_member190719
Active Contributor
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All I can tell you is that I created a Windows 8 VM, installed PB 12.5 on it, and it seems to work fine.  Not doing any formal development on it, just trying it out.  None of my clients have any intentions of moving to it anytime soon.

That might be your best approach.  If there are things that don't work on Windows 8, there's probably only a subset of us that use that feature and would discover the failure.  You'll be best off trying it yourself and ensuring that everything you use works there.

Former Member
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Hello,

we have three applications with PB11.5.1 and all are running on Windows 8 Professional.

All applications are using PFC and the biggest of them has 50 PBLs.

Best Regards

Heiko