Powersoft Inc has announced version 3 of its PowerBuilder client-server development tools. The new release is designed to fit more snugly into corporate development environments, with improved version control, links to third party design tools and a bundled database. Hitherto the product was reliant on a third-party database, both to store user data and user data dictionaries and objects, but now it comes with Watcom’s SQL Database; an addition that will appeal to a small number of customers who want to build stand-alone applications. The Burlington, Massachusetts-based company has always pushed the way that it enables teams of programmers work together, with mechanisms to let them share code safely. The latest release by extends these version control capabilities by providing interfaces so that with tools such as Intersolv Inc’s PVCS can track software changes. A newly signed agreement between the two companies means that Powersoft will be selling the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Intersolv product. Another agreement sees Powersoft teaming up with Transarc Corp to produce a PowerBuilder-based Encina client running under Windows. When this will be available has still to be announced, but Powersoft says it is part of a larger strategy in which PowerBuilder will embrace distributed network computing in addition to the client-server model which is currently its forte.
