Poss. Migrating to VFP from Paradox

I presently have a number of applications written with ObjectPAL and Paradox
10 running presently, however am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I
need to move away (Corel is not really doing much with it .. now).

Problem is that most of the users who use these applications do not need SQL
or anything heavyweight and am happy to stay with file-based databases and
recently picked up the press coverage on VFP 9. It sounds pretty damn good
for what I want/need and wondered if anyone else has had to migrate from
Paradox to VFP in the past and has any useful hints/tips or pitfalls in
making such a migration.

Regards
Jonathan

Anders
Sun Mar 20 16:14:26 CST 2005

First, google for: Paradox convert group:*fox*
Rwestricting to the last 6, 7 years.
-Anders

"Jonathan Wright" <jonathanwri73@nospam.aol.com> wrote in message
news:#6Euz8YLFHA.580@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I presently have a number of applications written with ObjectPAL and
Paradox
> 10 running presently, however am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I
> need to move away (Corel is not really doing much with it .. now).
>
> Problem is that most of the users who use these applications do not need
SQL
> or anything heavyweight and am happy to stay with file-based databases and
> recently picked up the press coverage on VFP 9. It sounds pretty damn
good
> for what I want/need and wondered if anyone else has had to migrate from
> Paradox to VFP in the past and has any useful hints/tips or pitfalls in
> making such a migration.
>
> Regards
> Jonathan
>
>

jonathanwri73
Mon Mar 21 11:35:47 CST 2005

"Anders Altberg" <x_pragma@telia.com> wrote in message news:<u6UwMufLFHA.2736@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl>...
> First, google for: Paradox convert group:*fox*
> Rwestricting to the last 6, 7 years.
> -Anders
>
> "Jonathan Wright" <jonathanwri73@nospam.aol.com> wrote in message
> news:#6Euz8YLFHA.580@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> > I presently have a number of applications written with ObjectPAL and
> Paradox
> > 10 running presently, however am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I
> > need to move away (Corel is not really doing much with it .. now).
> >
> > Problem is that most of the users who use these applications do not need
> SQL
> > or anything heavyweight and am happy to stay with file-based databases and
> > recently picked up the press coverage on VFP 9. It sounds pretty damn
> good
> > for what I want/need and wondered if anyone else has had to migrate from
> > Paradox to VFP in the past and has any useful hints/tips or pitfalls in
> > making such a migration.
> >
> > Regards
> > Jonathan
> >
> >


Thanks for the info, will check this out.

Ook
Mon Mar 21 11:48:34 CST 2005

Several years ago I "migrated" a Paradox app to VFP. You don't really
migrage, you rewrite from scratch. I haven't looked at Paradox for several
years, but back then it was pretty lame compared to VFP. Handle this like
any other legacy app conversion. Do you have any VFP experience? If not,
what tools are you experienced with?

"Jonathan Wright" <jonathanwri73@nospam.aol.com> wrote in message
news:%236Euz8YLFHA.580@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I presently have a number of applications written with ObjectPAL and
Paradox
> 10 running presently, however am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I
> need to move away (Corel is not really doing much with it .. now).
>
> Problem is that most of the users who use these applications do not need
SQL
> or anything heavyweight and am happy to stay with file-based databases and
> recently picked up the press coverage on VFP 9. It sounds pretty damn
good
> for what I want/need and wondered if anyone else has had to migrate from
> Paradox to VFP in the past and has any useful hints/tips or pitfalls in
> making such a migration.
>
> Regards
> Jonathan
>
>

Jonathan
Mon Mar 21 14:52:14 CST 2005

"Ook" <usenet@nospam.zootal.nomorespam.com> wrote in message
news:eXr6z4jLFHA.2888@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Several years ago I "migrated" a Paradox app to VFP. You don't really
> migrage, you rewrite from scratch. I haven't looked at Paradox for several
> years, but back then it was pretty lame compared to VFP. Handle this like
> any other legacy app conversion. Do you have any VFP experience? If not,
> what tools are you experienced with?
>

Thanks for your comments ... I realise that you don't migrate the app as
such, I didn't phrase this well.

Basically I know that I'd have to re-write the apps and will move the
database over to Fox tables. I'm more interested in knowing whether anyone
who has worked on Paradox 7 and above and since moved over to Fox previously
can share their experiences, pitfalls when compared to Paradox and also as
to whether the change from ObjectPAL to VFP was an easy transition for them
(I know nothing is ever straight forward).

As these apps are primarily used by small businesses with low volumes of
users (small service companies and property owners who rent out flats
etc..). The majority of them still run on Pentium and PII kit and at
present is performing well and they most don't see any real need to upgrade
hardware until perhaps it fails. The databases are presently not very big
with the largest DB being around 120Mb (in Paradox terms a database is a
collection of tables within the folder, unlike Fox as I have found out) and
I don't really see the need for SQL servers really as most of this is
single-user or small workgroups (i.e. upto 10 max) with small transactions.
However as these apps are all pretty key to what they do I don't want to
leave them on a product that is in decline any longer.

At work I am primarily using Powerbuilder with SQL Server and/or Oracle, I
have studied Java and like it but Swing apps performance is not great but
have been using Paradox since 1995. I have no VB experience and after
working along side the .Net guys at work not sure if I'd want to either.
Many moons ago I did use FoxPro 2 for DOS, cannot remember the exact version
nor too much about the work I did but knew the DB was fast and needed low
overhead. Which in my would fit the bill, I also think that Powerbuilder,
Java and .Net would overkill for what I need. All I want to do is generate
some standalone DB apps that can work on both old and new hardware from
Win98 upwards (avoiding Me of course!), I think VFP will fit the bill but
wanted to checkout if anyone else has had to make the some move that I am
considering.

--

Jonathan

Edhy
Tue Mar 22 08:01:49 CST 2005

Hi Jonathan,

If you plan to redo the application in Fox, I will suggest you get a VFP
Framework, check this list
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VFPCommercialFrameWorks to see some
explanations on them.

I have been using Visual ProMatrix for at least 5 years and still am pretty
happy with it, specially the new version for VFP9 and above!

--
Edhy Rijo
Bronx NY
Visual ProMatrix MVP!

Pete
Tue Mar 22 20:12:03 CST 2005

If you look into Frameworks and you have little or no VFP OOP experience,
avoid Visual FoxExpress. I would not recommend this Framework to anyone
with less than advanced VFP OOP experience. F1 management, (I won't name
names, but his initials are MF) have little tolerance for beginners in the
support groups. I was snapped at several times for asking stupid questions
and I saw another user referred to as a FoxPro neophyte. To say the least,
I never saw another question posted by that user.



Like Edhy, I've been using Visual ProMatrix for several years now and have
written some neat applications with my limited skills. The support groups
are excellent, and yes, stupid question are welcome. I know, because I've
asked a bunch over the years. It will also help fine tune your OOP skills.

Jonathan
Wed Mar 23 14:12:00 CST 2005

All,

thanks for the advice .. I never realised there was so much going on in this
arena.

--
Jonathan

"Pete Bronson" <pbronson@myyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Y-2dnfplxofuTd3fRVn-rA@giganews.com...
> If you look into Frameworks and you have little or no VFP OOP experience,
> avoid Visual FoxExpress. I would not recommend this Framework to anyone
> with less than advanced VFP OOP experience. F1 management, (I won't name
> names, but his initials are MF) have little tolerance for beginners in the
> support groups. I was snapped at several times for asking stupid
> questions and I saw another user referred to as a FoxPro neophyte. To say
> the least, I never saw another question posted by that user.
>
>
>
> Like Edhy, I've been using Visual ProMatrix for several years now and have
> written some neat applications with my limited skills. The support groups
> are excellent, and yes, stupid question are welcome. I know, because I've
> asked a bunch over the years. It will also help fine tune your OOP
> skills.
>
>