Irv;

I can name several of the best developers in Northern California who will agree on this point!

The most difficult application I ever created was one that had been used for 10 years and was DOS based. The client wanted a Windows app so I gave it to them. For the Needs Analysis/Requirements they said, “Just use the DOS program as the model and give it the look and feel of Windows”! What a mistake on my part!

I took a copy of the exe (no source code available) and tables home. Everything worked so I proceeded to use my favorite framework and create what I thought I saw in DOS. After two weeks of hard work I delivered a prototype for approval. The client loved it! So I went home and for the next four weeks “completed the project”! I returned to the client for delivery and founded out some great suprises!

No one had mentioned the hot keys that were used on the 50 forms and there was no consistency of which hot key was used for which function as they differed on each form! What a nightmare! I got the client to agree to standardize all hot keys and went home to incorporate the “unknown (to me) features”. It turned out to be a total success but what an experience! So when someone mentions DOS conversions I shutter and think of “what about the hot keys”? :)

By the way I got add ons to this project that paid me more than the original work. There is nothing like a happy client! :)

Tom



>I totally agree with you, Tom - I had a large 2.6 Fox app and converted it via basically a 'recompile' in 1999. It had the Windows 'look-and-feel' but that was it - the system was next to impossible to modify or maintain, and really didn't look all that good when you looked close...you pay a high price later for this convenience...the client and I had problems with the app almost immediately...
>
>In 2000, I took another large DOS app that was DOS-based (Clipper, actually) and used it as the model for a Total rewrite in VFP 6.0 and although it took much longer (4 months instead of 4 weeks), it has been well worth it over the intervening 2 1/2 years of operation and enhancments, etc...
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>Just sounding off...
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>-Irv.
>
>
>
>>>>>Answer me this please. I know it is ill-advised to use reserved words as functions and variables, but what are the consequences of say creating a procedure called 'refresh' or declaring 'isreadonly' as a private variable? I ask because I am trying to find the anomalies in an application delivered by others. The developer is a FPD/FPW hardcore (all SAY and GET, 200+ *.prgs and all free tables), but he put the program on VFP runtime. I want to find out if the quirks I am seeing are related to the inappropriate use of reserved words.
>>>>>
>>>>>TIA and wish me luck
>>>>
>>>>Often you can get away with things but you will be sorry later. It is better to not use reserved words. I have seen applications run for up to six months and then refuse to work again for reasons such as this. Avoid problems when possible. :)
>>>>
>>>>Tom
>>>
>>>To all,
>>>
>>>I know it is not right. Before I go to the developer and tell him that I think this is the problem, I'd like to know some specifics. He has good problem solving routines, but just can't grasp visual programming and the wonders of the VFP environment.
>>
>>Well, this project sounds like a "conversion" from FP 2.X into VFP. Did it ever work? Such conversions are a mixed blessing. If you ever want to modify, add or debug you are going to pay a price in time. The purpose of VFP is to reduce maintenance and development, while allowing the possibility of using newer programming techniques and functionality. These conversions can be a serious issue!
>>
>>Tom