I think Logical Methods is in a similar conundrum
with Profit. I'm sure there are loads of companies
with worse legacy problems.
Don't take offense by my comments - I'm
sure you're aware of your risks and have picked
the best path for your company.
I think COM will go ... eventually ...
although having said that - it's a pretty
simple protocol - it's not too bad - it has
been ported to Linux.
HL7 Chameleon's engine code doesn't rely on COM -
we just use that a thin wrapper around the real
engine - it's just a convenient way to talk
to Delphi. We could chuck it for DLL or CORBA
or whatever layer at the same time as chucking Delphi.
I think C++ is here to stay for a long time
it's an open ANSI standard, there are many compilers
available for it - practically all the really big
commercial applications are written in it.
I heard a rumour that in the States the biggest source of
new C++ projects is ones which have failed in Java. Given
the choice between learning Java and C++ I would still
pick C++.
Even if you are using a C++ class library which is
no longer supported commercially like OWL -
these frameworks still live on - beyond Borland.
Apparently OWL has been taken on by a group of volunteers
which are turning it into an open source project. A few
people are even thinking of porting it to Linux - certainly
possible - it's been done with MFC. I don't know that
the VCL will be so long lived.
I think as a basic principle any application should
be able to achieve some separation of business logic
from presentation logic - it's hard to achieve it - but
it's a worthwhile investment for the long term. Obviously
not worth the expense for a throw away app.
Writing portable business logic code isn't that hard -
portable presentation logic is a pain I would agree -
often not worth the effort for most applications - given
the presentation layer of different OS's is so different.
But the nature of accounting surely didn't change
between DOS and Windows? It should have been possible
keep the two layers separate.
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