Javier, Javier,
You are right, and Karen is right. I am happy for you that you have the luxury of time and/or budget to do it "right". One doesn't always have that luxury. We all wish we did, don't we Karen? Enjoying the exchange of ideas, Dennis McGrath -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Javier Valencia Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 1:06 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: converting forms from DOS to 7.6 Karen, I guess we agree to disagree. In my experience, converting old DOS forms is just delaying the eventual re-coding of the form to use the new tools. For example, the way lookups were handled on DOS forms and the way they are handles in the 7.X and newer versions is markedly different. The entire approach to the operation of the form has changed radically since the DOS days, EEPS are now stored within the form rather than externally, the new commands such as SELECT instead of COMPUTE give you SQL compatibility. The advent of the PROPERTY construct alone with the countless (and I truly mean countless) options, that give you incredible flexibility, would make a re-write (rather than conversion) worth it. I now also make extensive use of temporary tables and views created on the fly, something that I just did not do in the DOS days...I don't believe you could. In the DOS days I built applications using the Application Builder; now, all my application run from custom forms. Last but not least, when converting forms, you bring the dated look and feel of the DOS forms. Even the look and feel of 6.5 windows was a dated hybrid look; the look of the newer versions is truly compatible with the more up-to-date Windows look. I can honestly say that I have spent more time changing the look of converted forms than it would have taken to re-code the form in the first place. With availability of the form wizard, the simple forms can be re-coded in a matter of minutes, and the more complicated forms definitely benefit from the new tools available. I just finished upgrading a 7.5 application to Extreme 9-64 and I was surprised how many forms originally coded using 7.1 and above I ended up re-coding or heavily modifying...just to take advantage of the new available features. Again, if conversion worked for you, then that was the right approach for you, and as you know, I respect you opinion and developer capabilities highly. In my case, after a few trials, it made more sense to start from scratch. Javier, Javier Valencia, PE 913-829-0888 Office 913-915-3137 Cell 913-649-2904 Fax [email protected] ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 4:05 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: converting forms from DOS to 7.6 Javier: I respectfully disagree! I have probably converted 90% of the DOS forms. If you don't, then what you have to do is trace a program that brings up the form, make sure you go in and out of every field on the form, make sure you save the row, etc. in order to catch all the hidden eeps. Then you have to write them down so you don't forget. And you have to find out which ones have popups, etc. I'd rather convert because then all of that comes over and I don't miss anything. Then I spend the time to do things like change form expressions, see if those eeps can be replaced with internal code, etc. Karen Having done conversions all the way from the original DOS application all the way to 9-64, my advice - when going from DOS to 7.6 - would be to redo the forms from scratch, using the old form as rough guides. There are just too many things that you can do more efficiently with the newer versions and too many new features that you will likely want to implement. Also, there are also issues with form lookup fields (that were completely changed in the newer versions) that you would have to re-create. All in all, the effort to convert and correct old forms is just not worth it...IMHO. --- RBASE-L =======================3D======================= D= TO POST A MESSAGE TO ALL MEMBERS: Send a plain text email to [email protected] (Don't use any of these words as your Subject: INTRO, SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, SEARCH, REMOVE, SUSPEND, RESUME, DIGEST, RESEND, HELP) =======================3D======================= D= TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: Send a plain text email to [email protected] In the message SUBJECT, put just one word: INTRO =======================3D======================= D= TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send a plain text email to [email protected] In the message SUBJECT, put just one word: UNSUBSCRIBE =======================3D======================= D= TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: Send a plain text email to [email protected] In the message SUBJECT, put just one word: SEARCH-n (where n is the number of days). In the message body, place any text to search for. =======================3D======================= D=
