Hoyt Nelson

PowerBuilder provides an object browser - the utility accessed via the "Cubes with a pair of eyeglasses" icon on the PowerBar menu. If you haven't tried the PB browser, you should. Among other things, it eliminates the problem of identifying which PBL contains the object of inter... (more)

Like Java and C# programmers, PowerBuilder developers can create properties via the undocumented keyword indirect. Properties look like ordinary variables, only their value isn't accessed directly. When you declare a variable using indirect, you have to specify a function that's ... (more)

A typical PowerBuilder application has a few zillion MessageBox() calls. This article explains how you can roll your own MessageBox() function, replacing the native PowerBuilder MB() function with your code. Why would you want to write your own MB() function? The general reason is... (more)

It's an aesthetic thing. When you click on a grid DataWindow label and change an attribute, it acquires what are formally termed UGBs - Ugly Grid Borders. They appear between the labels in the grid header. The vertical lines are thin or thick. Inconsistency! Thick borders! Yuck! ... (more)

Roland Smith's PBSearch utility is the tool to turn to when you need to find a string in your PowerBuilder application. For example, if you have an error message from a bug report, it takes PBSearch only a few seconds to find all the instances of that message. Similarly, if you w... (more)

It's an aesthetic thing. When you click on a grid DataWindow label and change an attribute, it acquires what are formally termed UGBs - Ugly Grid Borders. They appear between the labels in the grid header. The vertical lines are thin or thick. Inconsistency! Thick borders! Yuck! ... (more)

Roland Smith's PBSearch utility is the tool to turn to when you need to find a string in your PowerBuilder application. For example, if you have an error message from a bug report, it takes PBSearch only a few seconds to find all the instances of that message. Similarly, if you w... (more)

In my previous article (PBDJ, Vol. 8, issue 2), I demonstrated the Object Name feature of the debug popup menu. The popup menu is a developer's tool invoked by holding down a magic key as you right-click a window or control. The initial and most useful debug menu item is Object N... (more)

How does your organization manage its PowerBuilder source? Your application has several PBLs containing several hundred objects. Do you use the native PowerBuilder check-in/checkout? Do you employ a "real" revision control system, such as Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe? These tra... (more)

Over the years we've adopted techniques that help us develop our PowerBuilder applications faster and with fewer bugs. This article describes my favorite bag of tricks, the pop-up debug menu (see Figure 1). The debug menu is for developers only and is unavailable when running an ... (more)

What's the word for a set of objects: DataWindows, DataStores, or DataWindowChilds? If there is a word, I don't know it. Objects don't have any relationship in the PowerBuilder object hierarchy, so that doesn't help.Let's call them DataObjects...oops, that's taken! Lacking any ot... (more)

Overloading allows two or more functions to have the same name and return type, if their signature is different. The function signature is defined by its number and types of arguments. When you call an overloaded function, PowerBuilder decides which version of the function to cal... (more)

In my previous article (PBDJ, Vol. 8, issue 2), I demonstrated the Object Name feature of the debug popup menu. The popup menu is a developer's tool invoked by holding down a magic key as you right-click a window or control. The initial and most useful debug menu item is Object N... (more)

PowerBuilder provides an object browser - the utility accessed via the "Cubes with a pair of eyeglasses" icon on the PowerBar menu. If you haven't tried the PB browser, you should. Among other things, it eliminates the problem of identifying which PBL contains the object of inter... (more)

How does your organization manage its PowerBuilder source? Your application has several PBLs containing several hundred objects. Do you use the native PowerBuilder check-in/checkout? Do you employ a "real" revision control system, such as Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe? These tra... (more)

Over the years we've adopted techniques that help us develop our PowerBuilder applications faster and with fewer bugs. This article describes my favorite bag of tricks, the pop-up debug menu (see Figure 1). The debug menu is for developers only and is unavailable when running an ... (more)

What's the word for a set of objects: DataWindows, DataStores, or DataWindowChilds? If there is a word, I don't know it. Objects don't have any relationship in the PowerBuilder object hierarchy, so that doesn't help.Let's call them DataObjects...oops, that's taken! Lacking any ot... (more)

Overloading allows two or more functions to have the same name and return type, if their signature is different. The function signature is defined by its number and types of arguments. When you call an overloaded function, PowerBuilder decides which version of the function to cal... (more)