Transition from Visual C++ (MFC) to C++.NET

[KingTermite]

Can anyone who has done any code transitions from Visual Studio 6.0 Visual C++ to Visual Studio C++.NET tell me how painful it might be?

I think there is adding namespaces to code, but what else? We have a pretty large project that is very Visual (e.g. LOTS of MFC). Would this be a major effort to turn over to Visual C++.NET?

[KingTermite]

bUmP! Anybody?

[TheCPUWizard]

There are two basic ways to go.

1) Use the MFC implementation that comes with .NET

2) Use native .NET/CLR object models.

I believe that option #2 is a far beter way to go when possible/practical.

On the other hand staying with MFC is much easier for getting the initial conversion done.

If your product is a commercial one that you will have to support and maintain for a significant period of time, give serious thought to #2.

If your product is very stable or for limited use, stay with option #1


If you are designing a new product, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN FROM MFC. [The aboce statement is a personal opinion not shared by some other members here ;) ]

[KingTermite]

Thank you for the reply. I would definitely love to run from MFC as quickly as possible.

I am really interested in the efforts of the conversion? How easy/difficult is it? From what you post, option #1 is more our style as it is a product that is pretty stable and only used in-house.

Can anyone give any clues on the conversion effort that would be required?

The background: what we are really look at is we have this big MFC product to use and maintain. We would like to move to .NET, but it is really dependent on the conversion effort of this product as to whether we would or not.

[James Longstreet]

You will find some errors when converting you Message handlers. I remember getting tons of errors b/c VC6 did not check arguments being passed to the messages as strongly as VC7 does, so you have to go through and fix all those.

Other than that I don't remember too much.

JDH