So now I can add Doug Porter published author to my list of accomplishments. It is really exciting to see my name in the actual print version. Well worth the time involved in writing the article. I’m currently working on a followup article on XML parsing that will hopefully appear in a future issue.

The publisher of PBDJ is Sys-Con Media which also publishes pretty much any other magazine that ends in “Developer’s Journal”, so I’m hoping to also contribute some article ideas to Java Developer’s Journal and see what happens (maybe related to some stuff I’m doing at work with BIRT and XML).

I have to thank the Editor-In-Chief of PBDJ, Bruce Armstrong, for helping me with some of the finer points of the article. Bruce is a very actice member of Team Sybase and does a great job giving back to the Sybase user community. You can usually find him (along with myself) hanging around the Sybase newsgroups.

Update: The article has now been posted to the PBDJ website here – Working with SOA & Web Services in PowerBuilder

Also here is my author page at the sys-con site and an rss feed for tracking any future articles.

Looks like with Oracle’s recent announcement all of the big names in the commercial database market have free versions that can be used in production environments. There is Sybase ASE Express Edition for Linux, Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, and Oracle Database 10g Express Edition.

Here’s a short feature comparison on the very basic stats.

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition
4 GB of data
1 CPU
1 GB of RAM
One instance per server
Downloads For Windows or Linux

Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
4 GB of data
1 CPU
1 GB of RAM
Windows Only

Sybase ASE Express Edition for Linux
5 GB of data
1 CPU
2 GB of RAM
Linux

Each of these databases are exceptional pieces of technology. I have worked mainly with Oracle and SQL Server and am really blown away with the features that have been packed into Oracle 10g and SQL Server 2005. I think these moves by the commercial database companies to release free versions of their software could really have an impact on the open source databases typically used to build small to medium sized databases on the cheap. We’ll see how it affects their future.

Also, the Alabama .Net Code Camp this past weekend went great. I’ll have a post tomorrow summarizing things and posting a link to the files from my presentation.

Just got word today from Dave Fish with Sybase, Inc. that the Beta for DataWindow.Net 2.0 has just opened. Here is the text of the message and link that Dave posted to the Sybase Newsgroups:

——————————————
The Beta program for DataWindow .NET 2.0 is now open. Please visit http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1038007 to register and download the software. The Beta web site contains information on how to access the Beta newsgroup.

Regards,
Dave Fish
Sybase
——————————————

If you are a current or former PowerBuilder developer working in the .Net world, then you already know all of the amazing things the DataWindow brings to the table. The 2.0 release includes some incredible new features including: support for using DataWindow.Net with WebForms and the ability to bind datawindows to .Net datasets

If you are not familiar with the DataWindow and have looked at competing controls such as the ones available from Infragistics or the new and improved .Net DataGrid, you really should give DataWindow.Net a try. It is a fantastic product.

Also, if you are going to be in the Birmingham, AL area this weekend, you can come see Dave Avera, one of the programmers that works on DataWindow.Net, give a presentation at the Alabama .Net Code Camp on this very subject.

(Shameless Plug: I’ll also be at the Code Camp giving a presentation on the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset).