Rewrite an old app in FoxPro 3.0 or Newer

[mcruzado]

Hello all.. I'm an old Foxpro dos days programmer, with a program written and compiled in clipper. I have found the need to finally rewrite it for todays operating systems win2k & win xp.

Question: I do have a copy of FoxPro 3.0 Pro, is it wise to rewrite it with this version or purchase 8.0 and use that.

My thoughts are will a 3.0 version convert rather easily to ver 7 or 8 or will that require lots of rewrites.

I've read about the memory/cpu speed problems with ver 3.0 so I have an older win98 system in which I can use to develop it in...

I guess I don't want to outlay a lot of cash without seeing how the rewrite will perform.

Any advise will be appreciated...

Thanks
Mel

 

[BPeisch]

There aren't memory/cpu problems with version 3 (I think you're thinking of FPW 2.6.), but version 3 was more like a beta version and was really buggy. There have been so many fixes and improvements since then, you'd really be much better off upgrading, especially since there's almost no one who could still help you with issues in version 3 that were fixed long ago.



-BP

http://www.peisch.com

 

[jimoo]

Why would you want to begin a new product with a version of the development software that has since had 3 upgrades (5,7,8) and they are working on the next version?

If the answer is cost, because you have version 3, I suspect you will save that cost many times over with the new features in VFP including intellisense.

One final note - MS is discontinuing support on some of the older versions. 3.0 may be in that category.




Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[mcruzado]

Thank you for the responses, but will ver 3.0 convert up to a more current version without to much hassle or will it be a big deal?

Thanks again
Mel

 

[jimoo]

mcruzado

When you say "convert" I assume you mean using the upsizing wizard, or something like that.

It my opinion, that when you go from 2x to VFP (any version) you should rewrite the app. There are portions of the code you will be able to maintain, but overall it is a rewrite. Let's be honest - if the app has been around this long it probably needs it anyway.

Seriously, the wizards creates forms that look nice, but it gives your buttons goofy names and groups them together in ways that sometimes does not make sense. I recommend using to wizard, just to see what it does, but start the project from scratch. Let us know if you need a sample of a startup program to get you going. Then it's just add your menus, forms, etc. and you're on your way.

Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[jimstarr]

Hi Mel,

If you get it running in 3.0 there will be no problem in moving it to a later version. -Jim

 

[jimoo]

Yes, but I go back to my first response:

Why would you want to begin a new product with a version of the development software that has since had 3 upgrades (5,7,8) and they are working on the next version?

Actually, I was incorrect in one area. There have been 4 updates since 4. I missed version 6 in my list.






Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[Mike Lewis]

mcruzado,

First, let me welcome you to forum ... and to Visual Foxpro. I have done several conversions from Clipper, and so have other forum members.

The general consensus is that it is usually better to rewrite the application from the gound up, rather than try to coerce it into the VFP environment. That way, you will be able to take advantage of all the important features of VFP (not least of which is object orientation), and that in turn will save you a lot of time later, when it comes to mainentance.

I would also advise against doing the job in VFP 3.0. As others have said, that version was buggy and incomplete. If I were you, I'd bite the bullet and buy the latest version.

That said, if you just want to dip your toe in the water, you might want to try developing some code or forms in 3.0, just to get the feel of it. If you do, you can certainly run the same code in later versions. For the most part, VFP has always maintained backward compatibility, so there is no need to "convert" a 3.0 to run under 8.0. It'll just run.

Hope this helps. Let us know what you decide to do.

Mike




Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[mcruzado]

Again, I must say Thank You to all.. The responses that I've received back so quickly,, are amazing. Being new to this forum I'm truly impressed and glad I found it.

Well I agree completely a total rewrite is the only way for me to proceed and I was a bit hesistant to purchase the current version, not knowing how much work it would be to actually learn and code in VFP since DOS days. But I'm deatermine and actually looking forward to learning.

And having a copy of 3.0 around prompted me to make the question about 3.0 code running in newer versions which has been answered. - Thanks

I just saw a link on ebay for a New ver 8.0 at a buy it now price of 77.95.. I'm not sure of what a retail version sells for but I think this is a good price.

I'm sure I'll need some help in recoding when I start this project here shortly.. so i'll be back...

Thanks Again
Mel

 

[seadriver]

Hi Mel,

The learning curve was pretty steep going from 2.6 to 3.0, and will be even steeper going to 8.0. On the positive side, 8.0 is apparently stable, whereas 3.0 was pretty much unusable (I called it much worse things than that at the time! ;-))

Here are a few things I learned while moving up to VFP:

1) Focus first on the database. If you get the design right from the start, everything becomes a lot easier. I know this was true in FPD 2.x, but it's much moreso in VFP;

2) Learn about the built-in classes and what they do, then subclass every form and control you think you'll use. Make sure to set the default form to your subclassed "data maintenance" form in Options, because that's the form the Form Builder uses to create new forms;

3) Once you've got your subclassed form controls, go into the database, modify each table, and map the field types to your controls (text maps to Textbox, foreign keys map to Combobox, Memo fields map to Editbox, etc.). When you add tables to the Data Environment of a form, you can drag-and-drop column names from the DE to the form, and VFP will create the form controls from your controls subclasses.

There's a lot more, but that's off the top of my head.

Good luck!