Customer Reviews

Powerbuilder Foundation Class Library Professional Reference (Team Powersoft Series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I routinely recommend the PowerBuilder Foundation Class Library Professional Reference to other PowerBuilder developers who are interested in using PFC. By reading it before starting a PFC development project this spring, I cut approximately 4-6 weeks off my development effort. By the time I got around to taking an actual class on PFC, it was all review.

The text is a relatively easy read for an experienced PowerBuilder developer with a good understanding of object-oriented principles. It provides step by step code examples for implementing key PFC objects. Watch out, though, for the occasional typo!

Although I refer to it less frequently now, I still keep the book handy on my desk. More significantly, I refuse to loan out my copy. I tell everyone to go get their own copy from Amazon.com.

This book appears to be in direct competition with mine... at first glance it does. Once you read the book you find that indeed the emphasis is entirely different. This book explains a lot of the theory and the use of the PFC's and that appears to be the purpose of the book. It is exemplary in achieving that purpose. It covers all of the areas that are of great concern to the typical programmer in exquisite detail. My book only briefly addresses that in the appendices. To my mind this book is like a manual while mine like a dictionary. For me, I can't get along without both.

I thought the book was well laid out and readable -- given the atrocious documentation that came with PFC 5, it is a good companion.

Oh the minus side, it is written for PFC 5 (all code examples, etc.) PFC 6 is an add-on chapter and is not integrated.

The other difficulty I found was that it was not critical of the PFC -- pointing out its better services and ones that are frankly weak.

Hopefully the authors will produce a book for PFC 6.5!

If you read in other reviews that this book is mostly a reprint of the Sybase documentation, believe it

It is exactly what the Title says: A programmers reference. This is a reference that gets constant use. It lays out the PFC in a way that lets you quickly become familiar with what it can do and how to do it. The only reference that I have found that opened up the PFC for real world use. I have recommended it to several of my associates. They agree that this is an excellent investment for the PowerBuilder Programmer.

Experienced PFC developers may still learn something new from this book. It is well written, well presented, and has good script examples. I recommend this book to anyone using, or about to use, the PFC on a PowerBuilder project.

The book tied up all of the loose ends of the PFC service based architecture that you got from the PB manuals. Explanations and examples of the PFC events and especially the PRE and Post processing events.

This is the book that Powersoft should have provided with the libraries. And nothing more. It is absurd that a library like PFC should be sold with just a list of function and objects. The authors of this book are very good at organizing the original list and presenting it in a more friendly way. I still would like to know why the release of the book was held back 6 months. Was it because of the chapter on PFC 6.0 that never made it into print but is included in the CD? On the bright side, the authors are household names for the PB/PFC community and it is like having a friend's book on the shelve.

I rate this book only average as it suffers from the all too common computer book problem of not being up to date with the current version of the technology subject matter. At least there is a chapter 21 on the CD that reviews PFC 6.0 material. But unfortunately, the supplied sample application only demonstrates PFC 5.0 code. Finally, I found much of the material in the book merely a rehash of other material spread throughout PB documentation.

To all PowerBuilder PFC Techies... This book is a "MUST HAVE"! Boris Gasin is a well-known and highly respected PFC helper. He has helped more PowerBuilder programmers in their endeavors to build robust applications than imaginable. Having mastered the PFC in an extraordinary way, Boris eagerly and accurately leads the way for others. Our thanks to Boris for all of his efforts. Sincerely, Sharon Buntz