Deploying 64-Bit Windows Applications
Create 64-bit native applications in PowerBuilder.
Usage
There is no special target for 64-bit native applications. To build
a 64-bit application, select the platform in the Project painter General
tab. If you need to deliver both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of your
application, you should use separate projects and separate folders for the
deployed output.
There is no IDE for 64-bit development. Design time uses the same
32-bit interface and 64-bit features display at runtime when you deploy
the application. When you click the running man button, the project runs
as a 32-bit application.
32-bit remains the default for new and upgraded applications.
During the deploy process, PowerBuilder checks and reports
unsupported features used in the application.
New Property for Environment
Object
The new ProcessBitness property identifies whether the application
is a 32-bit or 64-bit process.
-
Datatype — integer
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Values — 32 stands for 32-bit, and 64 stands for 64-bit
See the section called “Environment object” in Objects and Controls for more about the Environment object.
See the section called “GetEnvironment” in PowerScript Reference to read about the GetEnvironment
function.
New Datatype
The longptr datatype is 4 bytes in the 32-bit platform and 8 bytes
in the 64-bit platform. In the 32-bit platform, longptr is the same as
long; you can continue using long wherever longptr is required in 32-bit
applications. In 64-bit applications, however, using long to hold longptr
variables will lead to data truncation from 8 bytes to 4 bytes, or memory
corruption if you pass a long ref variable when a longptr ref is required.
If you want to move to 64-bit, use longptr wherever required. It does no
harm to 32-bit.
Since PowerBuilder does not have a datatype corresponding to the C++
pointer type, and there are no pointer operations in PowerBuilder, longptr
is not a full-fledged PowerBuilder datatype. You can use it to hold/pass
window handles, database handles, and other objects that are essentially
memory addresses. Doing complex operations on longptr type might not work.
If you want to represent/compute 8-byte long integers, use
longlong.
System Requirements
The design time environment requires:
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Windows SDK for Windows 8.1 or later
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.NET Framework 4.0 or later
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64-bit Windows OS to test (development requires only
32-bit)
The runtime environment requires:
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64-bit Windows OS
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PowerBuilder 64-bit runtime files
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64-bit third-party libraries, such as database drivers and
external DLLs -
Greater than 4 GB physical memory to avoid performance
issues
Limitations
There are limitations to this feature:
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To consume Web services, you must use the PowerBuilder the section called “HTTPClient object” object.
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You can use OLE and ActiveX components in your applications, but
you must use the 32-bit versions in the PowerBuilder Classic IDE. At
runtime you must have the correct 64-bit ActveX components
installed.
Unsupported Features
These features are not supported:
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COM+ runtime
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Machine code generation
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TabletPC
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PBNI SDK for developing 64-bit PowerBuilder extensions
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Status bar
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Grid table
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Clear(true) function
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Application server support
PowerBuilder Native Interface
(PBNI)
You can only use 32-bit PowerBuilder extensions in the PowerBuilder
Classic IDE. For runtime, package and distribute 64-bit extension
libraries with your 64-bit applications. The file names of your 64-bit
extension should match the 32-bit file names, since the application
references it by file name.
OrcaScript
To build 64-bit native applications with OrcaScript, use the new X64
option to build executable commands. For example:
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build executable <exeName> <iconName> <pbrName> <pbdflags> <machinecode> <newvstylecontrols> x64 |