How do we estimate the cost of a Visual FoxPro conversion? Do we count the number of lines of code and multiply it with an arbitrary cost per line of code? Do we count the number of reports, the number of forms or screens, the number of textboxes, labels, grids, etc. and multiply those by some arbitrary dollar amount? Do we count the number of macros and multiply those by some arbitrary dollar amount?
The list of things that can be counted and estimated goes on and on and on. The more things that are counted and then examined by an experienced programmer, the closer he can get to having some semblance of an accurate estimate.
So as a buyer, before you hire a company, you want to know as much as possible about what is “under the hood” of your program.
In addition, you need to know what can be converted automatically. For example, we at ERW declare variables and convert the assignment statements automatically. So if 25% of the lines of code in your program are assignment statements, converting them is automatic.
Macros in Visual FoxPro
Macros on the other hand are the nastiest of lines of code. There is no way to look at a macro programmatically and know what the command means automatically. The value of the macro must be known first. That value can come from many different places as the program is running. We have developed ways of significantly reducing the time to handle macros.
Before you hire a company, you need to know how many macros are in your program and how their values are determined. If the company you are about to hire does not address macros, you are likely headed down a very long and very expensive road.
Visual FoxPro Data
You need to know if your data is all in one folder, typically named “data“. Or is your data scattered in numerous folders? If they are, does the company you were hiring have a program to automatically find them? This is important because data is not scattered in the SQL world. All of your data should go into one SQL database.
We have a program that will find all of your data regardless of where it is and then automatically put it into your SQL server database.
We have more than 200 programs that help us estimate and convert Visual FoxPro to C#.NET. In future posts, many of these will be covered in depth.