I too have seen many of these "VFP on .Net" promises come and go, and each one got me excited. I must say it seems like a HUUUGE task, and I even if successful on X# end, getting the community to use it will still be tough, as many do not have have the luxury or discretion to dive into this, and the learning curve or migration risks that it could bring to their in-house apps, or apps they build for their customers.
In my case, I use several app components from the VFP community like West Wind wwBusiness and wwSql, Foxy Previewer, nfJson, XLSXWorksheet, blah, blah (over a dozen).
So, this would mean that not only do I have to convert my 100+ PRG files to this new syntax, I would have to convert all of these other dependencies as well before I could have a fully converted app compiled on X#.
That is a lot of work...
So, is this cool and excited to see it being possible? Yes! Am I really up to all that work, it is very hard to justify.
Visual FoxPro, how close is X# to compiling it already?
Visual FoxPro, how close is X# to compiling it already?
Hi Matt,
There will be no "this new syntax", you should be able to compile existing code with zero or very very minor code changes. There is a compiler switch for the X# compiler, with which you specify the "dialect" to be used. When you specify "VO", then it supports almost 100% the syntax of Visual Objects, when you specify Vulcan then it supports the syntax differences of Vulcan.NET, there are already the "Harbour" and "XPP" dialects (under development both), we'll also introduce a "VFP" dialect, which will be supporting most if not all the syntax of VFP, so you'd not need to do any (or at least not many) changes to your code.
There will also be a special version of the runtime for VFP, same as there is one now for VO and for other dialects in the future. I am sure this is what will be the most work in properly supporting existing VFP programs, but it is of course doable, just needs enough time and effort.
First things first though, for now we still need to complete the version of the runtime for VO, this should happen in a few weeks from now. After that is done and we make sure everything is working properly, we can look more closely into adding proper support for other xBase dialects. It's exciting times ahead!
Chris/X# team
There will be no "this new syntax", you should be able to compile existing code with zero or very very minor code changes. There is a compiler switch for the X# compiler, with which you specify the "dialect" to be used. When you specify "VO", then it supports almost 100% the syntax of Visual Objects, when you specify Vulcan then it supports the syntax differences of Vulcan.NET, there are already the "Harbour" and "XPP" dialects (under development both), we'll also introduce a "VFP" dialect, which will be supporting most if not all the syntax of VFP, so you'd not need to do any (or at least not many) changes to your code.
There will also be a special version of the runtime for VFP, same as there is one now for VO and for other dialects in the future. I am sure this is what will be the most work in properly supporting existing VFP programs, but it is of course doable, just needs enough time and effort.
First things first though, for now we still need to complete the version of the runtime for VO, this should happen in a few weeks from now. After that is done and we make sure everything is working properly, we can look more closely into adding proper support for other xBase dialects. It's exciting times ahead!
Chris/X# team
Chris Pyrgas
XSharp Development Team test
chris(at)xsharp.eu
XSharp Development Team test
chris(at)xsharp.eu
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FoxProMatt
Visual FoxPro, how close is X# to compiling it already?
Very well! I will be watching closely then. As soon as you have something ready to go, I will be at the front of the line to test it out.
(I use Sql Server, VFP 9 SP2, and do not use DBFs)
(I use Sql Server, VFP 9 SP2, and do not use DBFs)