Windows and
Macintosh application development
Power Objects bridges development gap
By Ed Dowgiallo
InfoWorld
A combination of strong ease of use and high-performance connectivity should quickly put Oracle Corp.'s new Power Objects in the company of the top desktop development tools. Unlike Microsoft Corp.'s Visual Basic (VB), Power Objects is truly object oriented. And Power Objects boasts cross-platform support that VB can't match. Windows 3.x and Macintosh versions are available now, and Windows 95 and OS/2 releases are due soon. Power Objects should compete well against leading development tools VB and Powersoft Corp.'s PowerBuilder. I really like the fact that Power Objects comes with native database drivers for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase Inc.'s SQL Server, and Blaze databases.
Blaze is Oracle's new database engine for lighter weight applications, though it has yet only very basic functionality. I was very disappointed that it supports only single-column keys in this release. I can forgive that, though, given that the Power Objects development environment, including Blaze, could run on my Toshiba laptop with only 4MB of RAM (though Oracle doesn't recommend doing that). The real advantage of Blaze to developers, however, is that the engine can be distributed with the application, so Power Objects applications can be sold to people who do not own a full-blown relational database. Blaze is also compatible with Oracle7, so an application written to run against it will also run with its bigger brother. Once the single-column restriction is lifted, a lot of Access, Borland International Inc. Paradox, and Xbase developers will be interested in this database as a means of supporting client companies of widely different sizes.
I looked at the gold release of the client/server edition of Power Objects running against a Blaze database and an Oracle7 for OS/2 database connected with SQL Net, Version 1. I was impressed that I could move a table from one database to the other by dragging and dropping it between session windows. Drag and drop is central to the way Power Objects does business. You can select the columns you want by clicking on them in a table window and then dragging and dropping them onto the form.
A master/detail form can be created almost entirely with mouse clicks. Only one trip to the keyboard is needed to fill in three words in property fields to complete the join between the master and detail tables.
Object orientation is based mainly on the forms. You can make any form into a class and drop such classes onto other forms. This is extremely handy for applications containing forms that are similar but not quite the same. Changes made to a form based on a class are preserved when the underlying class is changed. A form based on a class also inherits any changes made to the underlying class, as long as the change has not been specifically overridden in the form. For example, you change the font and background color in the class, but you have already assigned a font in the derived form. The form in this case will inherit the new background color but not the font assignment. Logos, menu bars, toolbars, and custom controls -- in addition to entire forms -- are just a few of the objects that can be made into classes and shared in this manner. One other neat thing about creating forms is that Power Objects has full support for OLE 2.0 automation and OCX.
Let's talk programming: Oracle Basic is mostly standard Basic. It has the modern control-flow constructs, such as CASE statements, that have been added to Basic over the years. If you are already familiar with Basic, all you have to learn are the method names in Oracle's class library and you know the language. I haven't used Basic for several years but had no problem dealing with Oracle Basic.
A band-style report writer is the weakest link in the feature set. It has no problem creating simple banded reports; and classes and form controls, such as entry fields, repeater groups, and graph objects, can be dropped on it and used, but I found it awkward to create a complex report with it. Similar report writers in Delphi and PowerBuilder are more advanced.
Power Objects has a nice debugger that has a class browser and the capability to set breakpoints, interrogate variable values, step through and over code, and watch critical variables. It would be nice if the class browser were also available in the designer tool.
Power Objects comes in two versions: stand alone and client/server. The former licenses you to connect only to Blaze and Personal Oracle7 databases. The client/server version adds drivers for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Sybase SQL Server. Oracle is providing unlimited run-time licensing with either version of the product. You have two options for distribution: p-code and .EXE files. Power Objects can compile down to an .EXE, but this will currently be a minimum of 2MB in size. If you're going to write several apps for the same machine, you'll prefer to use the run-time version and save space.
Oracle is going crazy on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. You can download a fully functional version of Power Objects, Personal Oracle7, or one of the Oracle Workgroup Servers from Oracle's Web site. Be prepared with a stable telephone connection though; any of these products will take several hours to download unless you have at least an ISDN connection. Oracle has also announced plans to provide a marketplace on the Web where objects created by third-party developers for Power Objects will be marketed by Oracle.
Ed Dowgiallo has worked with SQL and related technologies since 1980 and can be reached at edowgial@postoffice.ptd.net or ed_dowgiallo@infoworld.com.
Opinion: Buy it!
Oracle Power Objects, Version 1.0
Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif. (800) 633-0586; E-mail: web-mktg@us.oracle.com; Web: http://www.oracle.com
Price: $395 for stand-alone edition; $1,995 for client/server edition.
Platform: Windows 3.x, Macintosh; Windows 95, OS/2 coming soon.
Pros: Native database connections; easy to use; standard Basic programming language; object orientation; platform independence; Internet marketplace.
Cons: Weak report writer; Version 1.0 warts.
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