Converting from FPW 2.6 to VFP

Although Visual FoxPro is very compatible with earlier versions of FoxPro, there are some minor problems when converting an application from something like FPW 2.6 into VFP. Much of the code can be transported straight from one language to the other but the disadvantage with this sort of conversion is that it leaves you with a system which relies on outmoded features.

The immediate effect is that your application will look very dated but the longer term effect is that you will find it difficult to take full advantage of the new features of the VFP family.

As an extreme example, this is part of a screen shot showing a FoxBase program we wrote in 1990. The original source files are running under VFP 9 having had no changes made to them at all.

This set of Prg files could be compiled into a VFP executable and distributed but the program is at a dead end in terms of any future development. The best tactic is to rewrite the application. This will take some effort but the good news is that you do not have to do it all at once. Visual FoxPro can read and write data to tables in FoxPro 2.00 format and the two versions respect each others' record locks.

The links below cover six stages of the conversion:

Introduction | Data | Program code | Menus | Reports | Screens | Strategy