Hi Ken,

>I've done several of these, FPD -> VFP. And I've come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is start from scratch. If the table structures are close leave 'em in tact. And if some of the posting routines still fit stick 'em into methods/events. But if you use views, which I *stongly* recommend, then most of your posting routines are out the window between views and bound controls.

Several people have told me to do that, but I can do it. Here is the situation, tell me what you think I can do within these constraints:

1. We developed a large (5MB exe) commercial payroll program specialized to the laws of Panama. Many 'business rules' are built right into the screens. (Bad mistake). We are only now starting to get a payoff. The product is still having new features added driven by customer special requirements, which we leave in product as parametized options.

2. I am attempting to develop a program to convert the application to VFP and use the same code base for both versions. I understand that I have to postpone things like views and buffering for the time being, but my need is strong.

3. At the moment with great help from Dragan Nedeljkovic I am working on the idea that the converter generates an .spr that sets up the screen (including opening tables between #SECTION 1 and #SECTION 2) and then does a DO FORM xx.scx NAME xx LINKED. In the same .spr go the procedures. The screen objects have as ControlSource the same memory variables as before and I continue to use SCATTER/GATHER. The overriding goal as you see is not to have to edit the code.

4. The only code tweaking I am going to allow at this stage is bracketed code like IF _DOS / ELSE / ENDIF when it is absolutely essential.

5. After the features stabilize (and they will before the year 2000) I will proceed further, screen by screen, in the VFP version. I guess I am stuck without a DBC for a long time.

6. Do you think it is posible to create an automatic converter like this at all?


>The *easy* part of porting FPD -> VFP is that you already know what the app is supposed to do :0

Absolutely.

Thanks again.

Alex