Why decoupling Runtime and IDE
The PowerBuilder runtime files are now separated from the
PowerBuilder IDE, as an independent component “PowerBuilder
Runtime”.
The decoupling of Runtime and IDE makes it possible to install
and upgrade IDE and Runtime separately, and one IDE can work with
multiple runtime versions without needing to upgrade IDE. For
example, in the previous versions, when there was a new release,
especially a release with new features or bug fixes on the runtime,
if the developer wants to test it, s/he will have to configure a new
environment or back up the existing environment before installing
the new release. And now that Runtime is separated as an independent
component, multiple runtime versions can be installed on the same
machine, developers can switch to the new runtime version with only
one click in the IDE, and if any issue is found, s/he can switch
back to the original runtime in seconds.