In some areas generating machine code gives you performance boost. In some areas, you will very little or nothing improvement in the performance. When you generate P-Code, you need to ship PowerBuilder deployment DLLs along with your executable and PBDs. Otherwise, user can’t execute the application. The same is the case with machine code also. You must ship PowerBuilder deployment DLLs. As explained before, deploying as DLLs will give you a lot of advantages. That’s why PowerBuilder choose not to compile their code into your DLLs/ executables. PowerBuilder DLLs related to database access using native drivers, DataWindows, PowerScript system functions are already compiled into machine code. The message is that, DLLs that are shipped by the Powersoft are already in the machine code. When you choose to generate either p-code or machine code, that is applicable to the PowerScript that you write in the application. The areas that you will be benefited due to machine code are:
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Function Calls |
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Integer arithmetic |
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Floating point arithmetic |
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Looping Constructs |
Two other things two consider is, machine code files have larger footprint, since each p-code statement might translate into 4-6 machine code instructions. If your application is very database intensive, better to choose p-code generation.