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  3. how hard to rewrite a legacy software from C++ to C# in WinForm?

how hard to rewrite a legacy software from C++ to C# in WinForm?

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  • R RedDk

    It's easy. Start a new project in the target language of your choice. Copy the bare minimum from the source language, paste it in the new language target husk, and attempt to compile. You'll get tons of errors and warnings. Pick through them and eliminate them one-by-one. Obviously there's a lot of personal experience in "attempting" to do anything using a compiler and a linker. Done this, have I. Learned much have I.

    Richard Andrew x64R Offline
    Richard Andrew x64R Offline
    Richard Andrew x64
    wrote on last edited by
    #8

    RedDk wrote:

    You'll get tons of errors and warnings. Pick through them an eliminate them one-by-one.

    It's hard to tell if that's sage advice or sarcasm.

    The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

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    • Richard Andrew x64R Richard Andrew x64

      RedDk wrote:

      You'll get tons of errors and warnings. Pick through them an eliminate them one-by-one.

      It's hard to tell if that's sage advice or sarcasm.

      The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

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      P Offline
      PIEBALDconsult
      wrote on last edited by
      #9

      It sounds like the advice to start with a block of stone and remove the parts which don't look like an elephant.

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      • K Kenneth Haugland

        MFC to WPF or what? I did some conversions from C++ to C# for a complex math problem. That was pretty straight-forward since the finished C# code was not that different from C++ once you got into it.

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        Southmountain
        wrote on last edited by
        #10

        WinForm in my mind.

        diligent hands rule....

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        • J Jo_vb net

          Don't fear the reaper... ... just start re-writing the code. For smaller parts you can use https://www.codeconvert.ai/c++-to-csharp-converter[^] But you have to revise this converted code anyway.

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          Southmountain
          wrote on last edited by
          #11

          :rose::rose::rose:

          diligent hands rule....

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          • H honey the codewitch

            In C and C++ it doesn't really matter. In fact it's compiled into constant nothings basically (removed). In C# it's a ValueType which makes it closer to a struct than a class in terms of how it behaves - stack vs heap, etc.

            Check out my IoT graphics library here: https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx And my IoT UI/User Experience library here: https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix

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            Southmountain
            wrote on last edited by
            #12

            :thumbsup:

            diligent hands rule....

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            • R RedDk

              It's easy. Start a new project in the target language of your choice. Copy the bare minimum from the source language, paste it in the new language target husk, and attempt to compile. You'll get tons of errors and warnings. Pick through them and eliminate them one-by-one. Obviously there's a lot of personal experience in "attempting" to do anything using a compiler and a linker. Done this, have I. Learned much have I.

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              O Offline
              obermd
              wrote on last edited by
              #13

              This is exactly how I converted about 10,000 lines of VB6 code to VB 2005. The biggest changes were file handling and error reporting. To this day I'll occasionally use On Error Resume Next in short Subs and Functions when it's appropriate. Otherwise I use Try/Catch/Finally.

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              • O obermd

                This is exactly how I converted about 10,000 lines of VB6 code to VB 2005. The biggest changes were file handling and error reporting. To this day I'll occasionally use On Error Resume Next in short Subs and Functions when it's appropriate. Otherwise I use Try/Catch/Finally.

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                R Offline
                RedDk
                wrote on last edited by
                #14

                That's it exactly. Initially posting line-numbered QBASIC code into a C++ project ... I was surprised how little squawking the VS interface returned. I like that "On Error Resume" trick. Next time ...

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                • O obermd

                  This is exactly how I converted about 10,000 lines of VB6 code to VB 2005. The biggest changes were file handling and error reporting. To this day I'll occasionally use On Error Resume Next in short Subs and Functions when it's appropriate. Otherwise I use Try/Catch/Finally.

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                  Nelek
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #15

                  obermd wrote:

                  To this day I'll occasionally use On Error Resume Next

                  as long as you put something in between... :rolleyes: ;P :laugh:

                  M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

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                  • S Southmountain

                    I have a legacy software to draw very sophisticated charts. but I only need a small piece of these charts. I want to re-write the code charting this small piece of charts. How hard it is to do this? any experience to share?

                    diligent hands rule....

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                    Amarnath S
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #16

                    Outsource to someone here (me?).

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                    • S Southmountain

                      I have a legacy software to draw very sophisticated charts. but I only need a small piece of these charts. I want to re-write the code charting this small piece of charts. How hard it is to do this? any experience to share?

                      diligent hands rule....

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                      B Offline
                      Bruno van Dooren
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #17

                      Does it 'need' to be C#? Or can you use C++/CLI? Because the latter would be much simpler, in the sense that you can keep your algorithms and the back end stuff in C++, and do the user interface in C++/CLI. Is your user interface in MFC, or WTL or something else? The user interface would have to be re-built from scratch

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                      • S Southmountain

                        I have a legacy software to draw very sophisticated charts. but I only need a small piece of these charts. I want to re-write the code charting this small piece of charts. How hard it is to do this? any experience to share?

                        diligent hands rule....

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                        G Offline
                        Gary R Wheeler
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #18

                        You're going to have to rewrite UI code regardless. The one advantage going to WinForms would be correspondence in the UI. WinForms is something of a wrapper around Windows GDI controls for C#, in the same sense that MFC is a wrapper for C++.

                        Software Zen: delete this;

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                        • S Southmountain

                          I have a legacy software to draw very sophisticated charts. but I only need a small piece of these charts. I want to re-write the code charting this small piece of charts. How hard it is to do this? any experience to share?

                          diligent hands rule....

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                          MSBassSinger
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #19

                          In my experience of rewriting from one language into C#, there are a few principles I applied that helped me. 1 - Understand the requirements, architecture, and intent of the original code (which may have to be determined with only the original code at hand). 2 - Understand WHAT the original code is doing. 3 - In the new language (e.g. C#), determine how it best does what the original code did. Just translating code from original to new is a trap. 4 - What does the new language offer (including third party components if you want) that would be useful, that was not used for the original app with the original language? 5 - What new language architecture gives you the lowest total SDLC cost with the best acceptable performance, scalability, and support? Apply these principles and you will avoid a myriad of booby-traps and sloughs of despond.

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                          • S Southmountain

                            I have a legacy software to draw very sophisticated charts. but I only need a small piece of these charts. I want to re-write the code charting this small piece of charts. How hard it is to do this? any experience to share?

                            diligent hands rule....

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                            B Offline
                            Behzad Sedighzadeh
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #20

                            Isn't it better to use an existing product? Have you looked at ScottPlot ?

                            Behzad

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                            • S Southmountain

                              I have a legacy software to draw very sophisticated charts. but I only need a small piece of these charts. I want to re-write the code charting this small piece of charts. How hard it is to do this? any experience to share?

                              diligent hands rule....

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                              obeobe
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #21

                              I bet ChatGPT can do it.

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                              • S Southmountain

                                I have a legacy software to draw very sophisticated charts. but I only need a small piece of these charts. I want to re-write the code charting this small piece of charts. How hard it is to do this? any experience to share?

                                diligent hands rule....

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                                Thornik
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #22

                                Nothing hard. After C++ you'll write C# code like a song.

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                                • R RedDk

                                  It's easy. Start a new project in the target language of your choice. Copy the bare minimum from the source language, paste it in the new language target husk, and attempt to compile. You'll get tons of errors and warnings. Pick through them and eliminate them one-by-one. Obviously there's a lot of personal experience in "attempting" to do anything using a compiler and a linker. Done this, have I. Learned much have I.

                                  J Offline
                                  J Offline
                                  jschell
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #23

                                  At least to me the OP suggested that they want to use WinForms and that existing code does not use that. So that is a complete rewrite at least for that part.

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                                  • S Southmountain

                                    I have a legacy software to draw very sophisticated charts. but I only need a small piece of these charts. I want to re-write the code charting this small piece of charts. How hard it is to do this? any experience to share?

                                    diligent hands rule....

                                    J Offline
                                    J Offline
                                    jochance
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #24

                                    There are good charting controls available off the shelf for WPF, maybe for winforms but just go WPF. If those just won't do, you probably want to look for "using GDI+ from WPF" if you're looking to draw your own charts. If you're really wanting to visualize data in interesting ways, it might not be insane to look into using Unity. Custom rendering with GDI+ is.... hard to get a positive return on investment unless you're a company that sells components for WinForm/WPF.

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                                    • N Nelek

                                      obermd wrote:

                                      To this day I'll occasionally use On Error Resume Next

                                      as long as you put something in between... :rolleyes: ;P :laugh:

                                      M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

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                                      O Offline
                                      obermd
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #25

                                      On Error Resume Next is really useful for short clean up routines where the code would look like this

                                      try {statement1} catch {}
                                      try {statement2} catch {}
                                      ...

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                                      • O obermd

                                        On Error Resume Next is really useful for short clean up routines where the code would look like this

                                        try {statement1} catch {}
                                        try {statement2} catch {}
                                        ...

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                                        N Offline
                                        Nelek
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #26

                                        what (empty catch blocks) actually is something I do not like, have already lost some precious time tracking down things done by people thinking it is not needed.

                                        M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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