February 5, 2009
Albert Almeida has released an updated and much improved version of his Visual Basic 6 to Delphi migration toolkit, which is hosted on my web site.
Albert Almeida has released an updated and much improved version of his Visual Basic 6 to Delphi migration toolkit, which is hosted on my web site at the address http://www.marcocantu.com/tools/vb2delphi.htm.
The new version has support for conditional translation based on #Const, #If..#Then, it has support for .VBP, and .FRM files (but the DFM file is not generated yet), and the first implementation of conversion maps. With this technique you can specify how to translate the members of VB libraries to Delphi equivalents. An new tool called GenVB2D (included in the download) generates the basis for conversion maps. It simply takes a type library file and generates an skeleton conversion map.
It might look odd, but there are many commercial applications (and tons of internal ones) that are being maintained on VB6, due to the complexity of migrating to VB.NET. This tool offers a different path, which is migrating to a native solution that is actively under development by its owner, Delphi.
posted by
marcocantu @ 6:40PM | 4 Comments
[0 Pending]
VB2Delphi Migration Kit by Albert Almeida
Great!
CodeGear should bundle this with the next release.
Just for the fun of it :D
Comment by Moritz Beutel
[http://www.audacia-software.de/]
on February 5, 23:58
VB2Delphi Migration Kit by Albert Almeida
Delphi is under development (to some degree) by a
company that purchased the product from another
company that is on the rocks, and is the only company
producing a compiler for this language, making the
fate of a company writing code in Delphi tied to the
fate of Embarcadero. I can't imagine companies
porting all of their code over to Delphi, which seems
to have the sword of Damocles hanging over its head
and a constantly shrinking user base.
When I was working for a major American retailer (at
the time, 680 stores), the IT department literally
had no idea what Delphi was when a director of the
company tried to get a copy for me to use.
Ultimately, the company refused to let Delphi into
the building and was quite happy with its existing
code base... in VB6 (and the Delphi we wanted would
only have been initially used for the in-department
development of one application with no IT
involvement).
Is Visual Basic.net really much more difficult for VB
users to learn than Delphi? And wouldn't any company
want to port to a language that 1) looks like its
survivability is assured, and 2) actually has new
people coming into the field who will know how to use
it? Colleges today are certainly not teaching Delphi,
and it's hardly popular. The only language I've ever
produced software in is Delphi, and as of today even
I couldn't understand a major company choosing Delphi
as their development platform... the problem being,
major (and minor) companies, or anyone below the age
of 35, has no idea what Delphi is or that it even
exists, so it's not much of an issue I guess.
Comment by Joseph on February 6, 05:28
VB2Delphi Migration Kit by Albert Almeida
Well I'm one of those poor bastards being stuck
maintaining VB6 applications, actually got another one
landed in my lap the other day :(
Kind of unfair since I was the one lobbying for and
introducing Delphi in the company, and I'm the only
one still stuck with some VB6 apps.
Just fishing for some compassion ;)
Will try the tool and hopefully the migration tool
will help me to get rid of VB6 forever.
Comment by Mathias
[]
on February 6, 10:12
VB2Delphi Migration Kit by Albert Almeida
Apart from the fact that the tool is still incomplete,
right now we need the conversion maps for the most
commonly used VB libraries. Without the maps, the
conversion is simply syntactical. The maps included
with the tool are barely examples to demonstrate what
can be done with the technology. Anyone with some
VB/Delphi experience can write a map. See
help/maps.htm and GenVB2D.EXE.
Comment by Albert Almeida
[]
on February 6, 12:04
There are currently 0 pending (unapproved) messages.
