Posted: 1/28/2004 8:37:43 AM EDT
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Got a question. We have an OLD appliction at work written in VB4.0 (16 bit). I have had a company come in and tell me that it can't be brought up to spec (VB.Net) without a complete re-write. They want gobs of money to do this. Are they full of shit? Is there some kind of conversion utility? Can we change a litte to make it run in VB.NET? OR Do I need to bite the bullet and pay out gobs? |
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I'd kinda have to see the code, but it sounds like you might be screwed... We just switched from VB 5 to 6 where I'm at a couple years ago, and there were some issues there. I'm thinking VB 4 to .NET might be a pretty big jump... Doesn't seem to me like there'd have to be THAT much of a re-write though, however I've obviously not really looked at the code you're talking about... Shawn |
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Just out of curiosity, why does it need to be changed at all? Does it still work? If it does, and doesn't cause problems (of the REAL kind, not the made-up waa-waa i-want-something-newer kind) then you're wasting money. This is one of the reasons MS retained support for win98 -- too many people were following their common sense (it works, why change it) instead of buying into the marketing hype. Now.....if you NEED to change it because it doesn't work anymore, or is causing real problem....all bets are off. As far as being able to change it a little; there are a LOT of differences between VB4.0 and VB7 (.net) It very well may require a re-write. |
| VB.net is a bit of a leap even from VB6. VB.net is a true object oriented language. Data types etc... are different in some ways. That being said I converted one of my projects to VB.NET from VB6. There was some work to do on it to make it work. You can probably use the same functions in most cases if your company is the one with the source code. Form controls have different name also. How sophisticated is the program? |
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Is there a reason you need to go to VB.Net? If not, I would suggest having it upgraded to VB6 instead. VB.Net is still a new technology, which means there aren't as many programmers out there who can do it...which means you will pay out the nose for someone who knows how to do it. VB6 programmers are everywhere and VB6 is much easier to learn than VB.Net, so you shouldn't have a problem finding anyone to do the work. Just and FYI, I picked up VB6 very easily, within weeks. I've been looking at VB.Net for over a year and still haven't figured a lot of it out. Consultant companies love to sell you a list of goods which will result in them making the most money. You need to view them in the same light as a used car salesmen, doubting everything they say until you can verify it from an outside source. The company I currently work for was promised the holy grail, hired a consulting firm to work on it for a year and a half at the cost of $1.3 million dollars. At the end the product was unuseable and had to be trashed. That's an expensive lesson to learn. |
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The system needs to have many changes installed this year. That and the fact that we upgraded the hardware/OS to Win2000 from Win NT, the "experts" are telling me that I am facing a potential failure. I don't know why we would have to go to VB.Net. Any supportable version of VB would be fine. Microsoft no longer offers support for VB 4.0 (according to my "experts"). I oversee 99 applications and I can't be an expert on every one. This is the only app of the 99 that uses VB and it hasn't had a problem in years. So, since the squeaky wheel gets the grease, this one hasn't be lubricated in my tenure. |
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Yeah, such a leap will probably be impossible. VB6 will get you where you need to go. Too much changed in .net where something using very old structure may not make it at all through the conversion. Shoot for VB6, try a .net conversion but expect it to explode and just stick with 6. EDIT: I've been out of work since Summer of '02. I'll convert the thing up for you for next to nothing just to have some damn resume material. [:D] |
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There is a VB6 to VB.NET conversion tool. I've never used it so I can't comment on how well it works. In my experience, most apps could use a rewrite every few years, both to take advantage of new technology as well as optimizing portions of the code, adding some features, etc. What does this application do? The company I work for does software development (lots of .NET and SQL), maybe we can outbid the guys you found. [:)] |