FWIW, I also work with a national organization...very large...that has
an in-house-developed app (not Foxpro) that they require running in
WinXP virtual-machines on all Win7 (and soon, higher) machines...whether
64- or 32-bit.
In other words, we are not such dinosaurs (or...we are not the only
dinosaurs.) I think the app this organization uses is a comglomeration
of Javascript and webpages and Visual Basic and some cobol on the
backend mainframes and mini-computers...probably has a little C in
there, too. They even use some customized printer drivers that Oracle
released back in the 90's.
But, to your point about concern for deployment via virtual-machines on
multiple workstations, this organization has had several months of
"rollout prep" that has been quite painful and full of false starts.
After over a year of preparation, they set a target date of 7/1/12 for
the switchover...and it didn't happen. Then 9/15/12...didn't happen. The
new date is 1/1/13, but from what I hear it isn't likely, either.
All that to say that we are not alone. Someone keeps moving the cheese
and it's not just VFP apps (or Foxpro DOS apps either) that are creating
"issues."
As for DosBOX, I did play with it for a while a year or two back, right
after Win 7 came out, and I was able to resolve most of the issues, but
printing was a *B-E-A-R* as most printers now are USB at the least or
Networked, and the DosBOX developers just weren't all that concerned
about printing since DosBOX was designed to provide a sandbox for old
DOS game programs to run in. I vaguely recall that accessing the Windows
clipboard (cut-n-paste) was dicey, although I may be wrong. But, as for
actually running Foxpro DOS apps (and other old DOS apps), DosBOX
impressed me.
In the end, before taking a slightly different approach, I found that
going full-on for VMWARE (free) was the much better solution. With a
little training, I doubt anyone would object. Different than running
native? Sure. Impossible? Not hardly.
My final solution is what is currently being used: I've got a couple of
Linux boxes running 8 instances of VMWARE+Windows 2000 that are accessed
using LogMeIn through a web browser, although RDC works, too. I ended up
with LogMeIn because I wanted to be able to provide easy printing
(requires LogMeIn Pro.) The final result really is easy. The end user
has a desktop icon, which is a shortcut to a Firefox browser window that
is generated by LogMeIn. They double-click it and it opens Firefox,
connecting to the remote virtual machine. They enter a simple password
to log in, (something like "kat") and they have a Windows 2000 desktop
with all the DOS apps they need. When they print, it comes out of the
default printer for their Win 7 workstation, which is a couple of
hundred miles from the Linux computer running VMWARE and Win 2k.
The problem I would have if I were you, at this stage of the game, is
that converting an old DOS Foxpro app to VFP 9, while extremely doable,
will ignore the emerging web-browser-based interface, and touch screen
technology (pads, smartphones, kiosks.) Not that those interface
technologies are required for all applications...just that they do seem
to be the direction everything is going in. Ignoring this new direction
isn't a deal-killer, but it does put us into the "old ways" category.
Mike
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: FoxPro for Windows: 64-bit Machines
From: Alan Bourke <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: 10/23/2012 2:38 PM
All XP Mode is is a pre-packaged XP virtual machine running under
Virtual PC, with the added ability to:
1.Add programs to the Windows 7 menu by putting shortcuts to them in the
All Users\Desktop folder inside the VM.
2.Drag and drop between the VM window and Windows 7.
I would share your client's concerns about supporting it on a large
number of sites.
As for DosBOX, it won't work straight off because FPW is a Win16
application. You would need to run Windows 3.11 using DosBOX, and then
run the FPW app on Windows 3.11. Even more faffing than XP Mode.
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