Antonio: Upgrade suggestions

[Stevemcg]

I've been supporting & enhancing a business application for many years now that evolved from DBase to Clipper to FiveWin, and am now looking at the next transition that will enable it to run successfully on current Windows platforms (XP, Vista, etc.). It is basically just a database program that relies extensively on customized reports, which requires quite a lot of specialized indexes. The programming tools I’m currently using are:

Clipper 5.2e
FiveWin 1.9.5 SP5
Blinker 5.10
Resource Workshop 1.02
Microsoft Library Manager 3.10
Comix 3.0 RDD
Funcky 6.0
Protection Plus 4.05

My question is this... what would be your advice in regard to upgrading my software that would impact the development timeframe the least. In other words, what sort of problems might I expect if I choose to upgrade my current version of FiveWin with little or no changes to the client’s source code.

The application has no special requirements that would necessitate using 32 bits or 64 bits (that I’m aware of), but it would need to run on various versions of Windows platforms (Win98 and beyond).

Thanks in advance for any advice and/or suggestions.

- Steve

[Antonio Linares]

Steve,

The best advice is to upgrade your application to FiveWin for Harbour/xHarbour (FWH) as your application will be 32 bits with perfect integration with XP, Vista, etc.

You can easily upgrade from FiveWin for Clipper to FWH in two weeks or less. Most of FiveWin developers are already using FWH.

16 bits will give you troubles with memory management, resources management, usb printers management, etc. as your application grows. 32 bits is the natural evolution for your application

[Stevemcg]

So... all my other software tools will still be compatible? Also, what sort of changes would have to be made that would take about two weeks. Would that be changes to the source code, or changes to the make/link scripts, or...?

- Steve

[Antonio Linares]

Steve,

> So... all my other software tools will still be compatible?

Yes. Are you using any third party libraries ? Blinker is no longer needed.

>
Also, what sort of changes would have to be made that would take about two weeks.
>

I said two weeks for a maximum time, but you could have it in two days only. There is some software that it is not 32 bits compatible as VBXs, or third parties 16 bits DLLs. For these you will need to use their 32 bits equivalents. Thats why I estimated two weeks.

>
Would that be changes to the source code, or changes to the make/link scripts, or...?
>

Basically you have to replace clipper.exe with harbour.exe, and have to modify your make file to call a free C compiler (Borland) that will generate the OBJ from a temporary C file. You don't need to modify (or understand) that intermediate C file at all.

We use Borland free ilink32.exe instead of blinker.exe. With FWH we provide you the required batch file (and make files also) to build your 32 bits application.

You will have all our tech support and help to successfully migrate to 32 bits in record time.

[Stevemcg]

The only third party libraries being used are:

Comix RDD 3.0
Funcky 6.0
Protection Plus 4.05
NetLib 6.5

Would these need to be upgraded as well?

- Steve

[Antonio Linares]

Steve,

> Would these need to be upgraded as well?

Yes, as you can not mix 16 and 32 bits code into the same EXE.

> Comix RDD 3.0

Harbour provides native built-in comix fully compatible RDD. So you don't need comix any longer.

> Funcky 6.0

What functions do you use from Funcky ? Funcky also provides an OLE library (32 bits) that can be used with FWH.

> Protection Plus 4.05

Could you check if they provide a 32 bits version ? If not, what sort of protection does it offer ? We may help you to replace it with a similar system.

> NetLib 6.5

What functions do you use from NetLib ? Again, you may check if there is a 32 bits version.