Hi Bradley,
No, it is not that we are recommending customers to move away from PB desktop functionality. In fact, the next major release of PowerBuilder (after PowerBuilder 2019) has planned to revamp the desktop functionality with a cloud-installable version: https://www.appeon.com/developers/roadmap/desktop-cloud-app.html And in this version we added UI Themes for PB desktop: https://youtu.be/AegyiYsjEqA We wouldn't invest to do these things if the plan is to move away from PB desktop.
But the new generation of PowerBuilder is all about open standards. So when we designed the new C# Web API and assembly features we did so based on the open-source cross-OS .NET Core and ensuring that these features were compatible with not only a PB desktop app but also with ASP.NET pages and any other UI technology that follows open standards. So surely you will see us promote the openness of what you can do now.
Also, we opened up the DataWindow control of a PB desktop app to the world of REST Web APIs... think of this as the new generation of the old SOAP Web Service DataWindow. Specifically, we introduced a new RESTClient object to make it very easy (with very little coding) to call any REST Web API, including a REST Web API developed with PowerBuilder 2019. And also, the RESTClient added support to directly pipe data in and out of the DataWindow control. https://youtu.be/vdRmuarEnMk
And just to clarify, us putting a lot of focus on the middle tier (C#) in PowerBuilder 2019 is not to imply we are moving away from PowerScript or the desktop. Rather, we were forced to put a lot of focus in this area because Sybase failed to deliver a popular solution for the middle tier - either they shipped expensive and proprietary solution (EAServer) or half-baked and proprietary solution (PB.NET). These days most customers won't build a new enterprise system without a middle tier.
Hope this clarifies where PowerBuilder is heading, and of course please keep checking our roadmap page, which should be consistent with all that I said. https://www.appeon.com/developers/roadmap
Regards,
Armeen Mazda
CEO, Appeon