Hi Alex

>I appreciate your and others' recommendation against a rewrite. I fear the project myself. Our motivation for a rewrite is the long term lack of VFP developers.

I have a somewhat different view on this. Its more difficult to turn an average VFP programmer in a excellent VFP programmer, than to take an excellent programmer in whatever language and teach them VFP.

As I said, we are facing the same challenges with a team of 5 developers. Currently we are gradually rewriting a huge app (a process already several years) in explicit layers and a restructuring the framework, getting documentation in order etc. By far the most is still pure VFP, however the database is SQL server and we do a bit of WWC, JavaScript and JQuery.

The strategy is to have a solid n-tier application where the database is SQL server and the GUI can be anything. Replacing the dataobjects and biz objects layers is not the first objective. Its making sure that any new developer, new or seasoned VFP developers can be productive in the least possible time by having a well structured application architecture and sufficient documentation.

As you outlined.. we are fearing any drastic steps as well, therefore taking a step by step approach. As long as you know what way you are heading, you do not need a total rewrite.

But if you do, I seriously would take a look at the SAAS products. Again you do not want to deal with things like browser compatibility. I do not buy the argument that jQuery is cross platform. I've experience firsthand that there could be significant problems in supporting both IE and FF.









>
>The problem our app solves is calculating payrolls according to the laws of Panama, which is a complex set of rules that periodically change... to become more complex. The need to solve this business problem is practically eternal, so the useful life of the rewritten program is potentially very long, assuming we keep it current, and we feel it will pay off.
>
>We know the business problem well, better that our competitors, and the smallness of the market makes it unattractive to foreign software companies. We believe we have a few years to complete the rewrite. During that time we will cover our flanks by developing a few add on options with West Wind Connection, mostly report oriented with some data capture. Right now our app is 100% LAN.
>
>We need to make good choices, so I'll be asking many questions:
>
>We'd like to make the rewrite fairly data driven, so the first question is: Does .NET allow the equivalent of VFP's EVALUATE(lcCommand) ?
>
>Thanks for the concern and response.
>
>Alex
>
>>Walter,
>>
>>I share your opinion that the real issue in the OP's project is whether he can complete it.
>>
>>Some interesting reading from Joel Spolsky, CEO of StackOverflow:
>>
>>Things You Should Never Do, Part I by Joel Spolsky
>>
>>How To Survive a Ground-Up Rewrite Without Losing Your Sanity
>>
>>The first, absolutely critical thing to understand about launching a major rewrite is that it's going to take insanely longer than you expect. Even when you try to discount for the usual developer optimism. Here's why:
>>- Migrating the data sucks beyond all belief
>>- It's brutally hard to reduce functional scope
>>- There turn out to be these other system that use "your" data
>>...
>>You you have to totally own the business value.
>>First off, before you start, you must define the business value of this rewrite. I mean, you should always understand the big picture value of what you do (see: Rands Test). But with rewrites, it's often the tech lead, or the developers in general, who are pushing for the rewrite -- and then it's absolutely critical that you understand the value. Because you're going to discover unexpected problems, and have to make compromises, and the whole thing is going to drag on forever. And if, at the end of all that, the Important People who sign your checks don't see much value, it's not going to be a happy day for you.
>>...
>>Worship at the Altar of Incrementalism
>>Over my career, I've come to place a really strong value on figuring out how to break big changes into small, safe, value-generating pieces. It's a sort of meta-design -- designing the process of gradual, safe change.
>>
>>
>>
>>PS:
>>>* Windev
>>>* Servoy
>>>* Lianja
>>*FoxInCloud
>>
>>Would you mind adding FoxInCloud to your list?
>>As a full SaaS platform, FoxInCloud takes in charge user state management across multiple servers, user security, audit trail, detailed execution time reporting, and more.
>>
>>FoxInCloud implements the gradual change approach mentioned earlier.