Any .NET compilers for VFP ? 1

[baseballgem]

I am taking a course on Visual Studio .NET and topics mainly covered are .NET apps and ASP.NET. I develop mostly in VFP7 desktop apps, but the company seems to be moving strongly toward web-based and .NET design ASP's.

I notice that the DLL's that are created in class can have as a source: VB or C#.
The teacher says any programming language may be used as long as the DLL compiler creates a .NET compatible DLL in order for the back-end "Just in Time" compiler to run seamlessly.

At one time I read that VFP7 and 8 was not going to be a part of the .NET community because it meant having to give up too much. I still don't understand what it would have to give up.
I know how to create a Non-Visual Single Thread DLL component, I do it all the time from the project builder.

But not withstanding, the question remains: Are there any 3rd party VFP program (or DLL) compilers that can make the DLL become compatible with and work within the .NET Framework.

 

[justamistere]

Maybe this may be of help.

programming.
Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET <

http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/vfp/downloads/VFPToolkitNET.zip>

VFPToolkitNET.zip: VFPToolkit DLL class library, CHM help, XML dynamic help, readme.txt, setup.bat.

Source Code for Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET (Visual Basic .NET version) <

http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/vfp/downloads/VFPToolkitNET_VBNET_Source.zip>

Visual Basic .NET source code for the Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET.
Source Code for Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET (C# .NET version)

<

http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/vfp/downloads/VFPToolkitNET_CSharpNET_Source.zip>

C# .NET source code for the Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET.
Application: Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET
Copyright: None (Public Domain)
Date: April 24th, 2002
Version 1.00

 

[craigber]

No, there are no .NET compilers for VFP and there won't be. You simply can't do it. .NET languages must follow specific rules and VFP doesn't do it.

So, what would it give up?
- Macro substitution
- Native data handling. All .NET languages use ADO.NET
- Visual subclassing. You can only subclass in code in .NET

FYI, many in the VFP community have complained that VFP should be a .NET language. VB 6 and Access developers have said the same thing. (VB.NET is a very different animal from VB6.) If VFP were to become a .NET language, it would look very much like VB.NET.

The VFP Toolkit for .NET was a community effort to take many of the functions in VFP and rewrite then in .NET. It was done because 1) it would ease the transition from VFP to .NET and 2) the same functionality was missing or difficult to do in .NET.

You can use VFP DLLs in .NET and vice-versa through an interop or via web services. See

http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/VFPDOTNETiNTEROP/VFPDOTNETINTEROP.HTM

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports&quot;