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  1. #1
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    Exclamation Convert VC 1.52 to VC6 or C#

    Hi, we have a project designed under VC++ 1.52 and now we want to update it. Best C# There are lots of DLL from crystal report, an integrated Textsystem (can be lost) the database was a xBase and we want a database with more performace .
    First question exists there a tool for translate most of the code?

    Second is there any developer interested in convert it and will make an offer? The code is 4 MB in about 100 Cpp files
    Thanks for replay
    Reinhard

  2. #2
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    Re: Convert VC 1.52 to VC6 or C#

    If you want to use C# you will have to completely rewrite it. Upgrading it to VC6 isn't a smart thing to do because VC6 is OLD. Upgrading it to VS 2008 or 2010 would be a better option. Also, by upgrading I mean rewriting it... VC 1.52 is too old to compile under newer VS versions.

  3. #3
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    Re: Convert VC 1.52 to VC6 or C#

    Yes, I knew its old we have developed the project in the last century :-)
    But to rewrite the whole stuff do not sounds good.
    I Thought VC6 is not so far from 1.52 so it maybe work with less time to spend. Its just for one customer, he will buy it and there are some bugs that can with 1.52 not be fixed (like crystal report dll will blow up the whole system after a while 4-5 hours and you have to restart)
    Last edited by LongJohn; May 26th, 2010 at 06:41 AM.

  4. #4
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    Re: Convert VC 1.52 to VC6 or C#

    You can try it. Open your 1.52 project in Visual Studio 6 and try to compile it and see what happens. But as a Visual Studio user I know that every new version has upgrades and stuff that sometimes make old code incompatible. There is also to problem that some functions seem to work, but are simple obsolete. This will give you problems with difference between OSes (Xp -> Vista -> W7).

  5. #5
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    Re: Convert VC 1.52 to VC6 or C#

    VC1.5 -> VC6 required large (manual) changes to many bits of code due to the different way the compilers handled things.
    You could convert, but that typically wasn't enough just to get things compiling (let along to work properly).

    VC6 -> VC2003 was equally a fairly large revision requiring extensive manual code changes.

    VC2003 -> VC2005/VC2008 again code changes needed.

    Your mileage will vary of course, it depends how much code you have. A full rewrite isn't necessary, but you can expect to be needing major (manual) revision of a large amount of the code. and that's just to convert what you already have.

    Replacing a database with another one can be a matter of a few lines of code, or it can be a major rewrite depending on how the two database engines work. With a database developed in VC1.52 I'm sort of going to guess the database was an ISAM (navigational) database, something that's hard to even find these days, modern databases are RDBMS (relational/SQL) based.

    The old crystal reports you used has seen several revisions as well, you'llneed to upgrade to a new one for compatibility with the new Visual Studio. Which will be more revision work. You can swap to another reporting tool, but that's probably going to be an even bigger step.

  6. #6
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    Re: Convert VC 1.52 to VC6 or C#

    Thanks for your reply.

    As I resume, it will be the better way to get the functionality of the project and make it new.

    The project is a leasing program for middle and higher volumes. So we should get the design and the logic and then start again.

    Thanks to all

  7. #7
    Arjay's Avatar
    Arjay is offline Moderator / EX MS MVP Power Poster
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    Re: Convert VC 1.52 to VC6 or C#

    You'll need to rewrite the code from scratch for any target.

    The reason being is that VC1.52 is 16-bit code. Porting to 32-bit code may work, but you'll end up with a crappy 32-bit program.

    The best thing you can do is write a detailed specification of the old features and recreate them in VC2008 or VC2010 or C#. Don't waste time writing to VC6 (a 12 year old compiler).

    That way, at the end of the day, you'll end up with a modern program, not some hacked up hybrid that is difficult to maintain.

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