Luke -

PMJI at this later date (I was away) but...

[LP]
Apart from upgrading to the .NET framework (which was so different and
powerful that it was impossible to be backwards compatible) when did you
have to do a virtual rewrite? What language and versions where you using?

[GM]
VB2 to 3 - about 50% had to be redone
3 to 4 - complete & total rewrite
4 to 5 - portions had to be rewritten
5 to 6 - portions again (mostly to fix bug workarounds I had to do to make 5
work - VB5 was awful!)
6 to .net - ain't done it - 'cause 1) I spent so much time trying to get
truly* user friendly db apps working in .net that the customer was shocked
by my estimates & 2) .net required upgrade of all user's computers to get
enough horsepower to run .net & sqlserver at any kind of acceptable speed.

* When trying to figure out .net, I purchased Muroch' book on developing
"professional" apps in .net. The 600 page $80US book produced (when you
finished the book/tutorial) a vendor entry form + a couple of others that
had less than 1/2 the capabilities of the sample apps that come with VDF.
They struck me as being at about high school senior ( i.e. not yet in
college) project level - the teacher might give you an A - but no business
would buy it.

I won't even go into the nightmare of error handling in any VB version. An
app where finding EOF aborts the app unless you specifically program for
it???? Sheesh. VDF is light-years ahead in that department.

My 2 cents (whether AU, US or Canadian) is that DAW's fees do pay for
themselves very quickly in reduced development & support time - especially
if you choose the route mentioned later in this thread where the customer
buys a new license only for a major upgrade every 4 years or so. That
method requires some extra work on your part - but then so does upgrading
all the client licenses 2x a year...

Garret

"Luke Pickering" <l.pickering@REMOVETHIScqu.edu.au> wrote in message
newsKoCYcLYFHA.1996@dacmail.dataaccess.com...
> OK, I didn't realise they had discounts like that.
>
> Those discounts may be very useful for existing VDF users who upgrade from
> version 7 to 11, because they might already have 100 customers.
> What about new customers that pick up a few users here and there, once
> they hit 100 will DAC give them $50,000 back?
>
> Also, I'm very interested in your experience working in Microsoft
> environments.
> Apart from upgrading to the .NET framework (which was so different and
> powerful that it was impossible to be backwards compatible) when did you
> have to do a virtual rewrite? What language and versions where you using?
>
> Cheers
> Luke
>
> "Ian Telfer" <ian@informatica.com.au> wrote in message
> news:3bm2crCYFHA.1272@dacmail.dataaccess.com...
>> Luke,
>>
>> A 5 Users x 100 license pack is AUD 30,000 and the annual fees AUD 7,500.
>> I guess it would depend on how you value or cost your time.
>>
>> My experience with working in M$ environments is that every couple of
>> revisions you have to virtually rewrite it.
>>
>> If you're going to have so many users of a system within a year, I'd
>> think that cost & time of development would be critical along with
>> ongoing support & development.
>>
>> For that reason alone I would suggest that the VDF option would be cheap
>> in comparison.
>>
>> Ian

>
>