Quote:
> I think you should forget about line by line, either by hand or by
> some magic sausage machine.
Sure, if Brad doesn't mind losing his job. One thing that seems clear
is that this is not a hobby situation, and there are likely to be
non-technical considerations at work.
Quote:
> You might get there in the end but the resulting VB will not be
> pretty.
Not necessarily. It won't be the way a relatively recent graduate
would design it from the ground up, but it could very well be every
bit as elegant (or ugly) as the original.
Quote:
> VB's event-driven model calls for a different program design than
> that used in procedural 'line number' BASIC.
It ALLOWS such a different design, but does not REQUIRE it. Many
such translations have involved little more than popping up a form
with a screen-sized rich text box and then dividing the original
code between the Form_Load and Text_Change events.
Quote:
> You have a great opportunity to write a clean program from
> scratch. Think of it this way: would you rather be on maintenance?
As opposed to being on unemployment?
Quote:
> Start with the requirements. What is the program for? Who is it for?
> What goes in? What comes out? What is done between input and output
> (NB: WHAT is done, not HOW is it implemented in the code)? If nobody
> can tell you, the existing program can hardly be business critical.
That would be a bad bet. Many, if not most, businesses rely on Black
Box software for mission critical functions - especially those with
large bodies of legacy software. In many cases, the only detailed
description of "what is done" is the commentary associated with the
"how it is done" in the body of the code (as many discovered during
the Y2K scare).
Do you know EVERY detail of what your car does? Is your car "mission
critical" to your lifestyle? Most corporate users of business critical
applications are nothing more than 'drivers', and rightly so.
It is easy to suggest that other people simply disregard the
instructions of their higher-ups, discard thousands of lines of legacy
code, and start from scratch. It is rather different when the career
at risk is one's own.
--
W.E. (Bill) Goodrich, PhD
*-----------------------*--------------------------------------------*
* CHANGE YOUR {*filter*}ITY * http://www.*-*-*.com/ ~bgoodric/ctg.html *
* * *
* Behavior Modification * Creative Technology Group *
* or {*filter*} * PO Box 286 *
* * Englewood, CO 80151-0286 *
*-----------------------*--------------------------------------------*
Please Don't Laugh!