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Migration from VA IBM 6 to VA 8.x. Is it possible?

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nicola mondinelli

Migration from VA IBM 6 to VA 8.x. Is it possible?

Hi everyrbody

i'm wondering how could it be expensive (time effort, the license price is indeed clear) to migrate our application from IBM VisualAge 6.0 (+ windowsBuilderPro,+widgetkit) to the instantiations 8.x version.

Our application is quite complex and contains a lot of code (the icx weights 8MB) and we cannot afford to go into a deep code review/restyle/lift/scream, so, before investing time on downloading the trial version and start importing/testing the big project i'm asking you:

- Are there any constraints when migrating from 6.0 to 8.x?

- there is a yabbadabba magic way to have a painless migration?

- Is there a tool to help with such a migration like mine?

- i'm wasting time?

Thanx a lot!

Nicola

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SebastianHC

Re: Migration from VA IBM 6 to VA 8.x. Is it possible?

Hi Nicola,

the ones I did where just like moving a switch and that's it.

In the end it depends on the way how you extended core classes.

Real changes occured during the introduction of Seaside and the needed Plattform support layer.
Methods like beginsWith:, asInteger, copy and so need a little care. But there is no vodoo going on usually.

Have a look at the "Migration Guide". It tells you step by step what to do while updateing from one VASmalltalk version to the other. I had only where few questions regarding this in the past and Instantiations provides reat support here.

I would highly recommend this update since VAAssist is now part of the distribution and other new features make as a developer easier.

Sebastian

Am 25.09.2013 06:13, schrieb nicola mondinelli:

Hi everyrbody
i'm wondering how could it be expensive (time effort, the license price is indeed clear) to migrate our application from IBM VisualAge 6.0 (+ windowsBuilderPro,+widgetkit) to the instantiations 8.x version.

Our application is quite complex and contains a lot of code (the icx weights 8MB) and we cannot afford to go into a deep code review/restyle/lift/scream, so, before investing time on downloading the trial version and start importing/testing the big project i'm asking you:

- Are there any constraints when migrating from 6.0 to 8.x?

- there is a yabbadabba magic way to have a painless migration?

- Is there a tool to help with such a migration like mine?

- i'm wasting time?

Thanx a lot!

Nicola

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Dusty-2

Re: Migration from VA IBM 6 to VA 8.x. Is it possible?

Hi Nicola

Our ICX from VAST 5.5 was hitting 30MB.

I was tasked with getting it to work in VisualAge 8.x

It took some effort on my part, and I was still learning (am still learning) smalltalk and this was an introduction project for me.

It took some fiddling and learning but we now regularly develop the application in VisualAge 8.x and it was well worth the migration.

Effort (for a novice like me) was about a months worth of fiddling and learning. A more seasoned developer could probably do it in a few days.

Cost, well, Its your time and I'm sure the Instantiations guys can work out a price for you for the license.

We, as a company, have recently renewed our license and consider the money well worth spending.

KR
Dusty

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 3:22 PM, Sebastian Heidbrink <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Nicola,

the ones I did where just like moving a switch and that's it.

In the end it depends on the way how you extended core classes.

Real changes occured during the introduction of Seaside and the needed Plattform support layer.
Methods like beginsWith:, asInteger, copy and so need a little care. But there is no vodoo going on usually.

Have a look at the "Migration Guide". It tells you step by step what to do while updateing from one VASmalltalk version to the other. I had only where few questions regarding this in the past and Instantiations provides reat support here.

I would highly recommend this update since VAAssist is now part of the distribution and other new features make as a developer easier.

Sebastian

Am <a href="tel:25.09.2013%2006" value="+12509201306" target="_blank">25.09.2013 06:13, schrieb nicola mondinelli:

Hi everyrbody
i'm wondering how could it be expensive (time effort, the license price is indeed clear) to migrate our application from IBM VisualAge 6.0 (+ windowsBuilderPro,+widgetkit) to the instantiations 8.x version.

Our application is quite complex and contains a lot of code (the icx weights 8MB) and we cannot afford to go into a deep code review/restyle/lift/scream, so, before investing time on downloading the trial version and start importing/testing the big project i'm asking you:

- Are there any constraints when migrating from 6.0 to 8.x?

- there is a yabbadabba magic way to have a painless migration?

- Is there a tool to help with such a migration like mine?

- i'm wasting time?

Thanx a lot!

Nicola

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jtuchel

Re: Migration from VA IBM 6 to VA 8.x. Is it possible?

In reply to this post by nicola mondinelli

Hi Nicola,

a migration from 6.0 to 8.x is certainly possible. I've done several such migrations over the last few years. Some of the projects had very large code bases.

Instantiations has tried to keep 8.x compatible with 6.0, so the code should not really cause much trouble in migrating.

What can be tough, however, is to get the code to load into a current image. This depends on many factors:

* How well is the code structured with regards to dependencies on product code?

* How 6.0-compatible is the code really (I've seen projects that used code from 4.5 in 6.0 without really migrating)?

* How many extensions and changes to VAST-code have been implemented in the past. These need to be checked each at a time whether they have to be reimplemented or can be removed because the product code has been fixed in the meantime.

A typical migration took between 4 and 10 days. Sometimes we needed to do some extra regression testing, sometimes we just did the migraton in an early phase of an innovation cycle so that regression testing was already in the project plan.

Instantiations hasn't implemented many changes in WindowBuilder or WidgetKit, so these will not cause any trouble.

Is an update worth the time? I would definitely say so. VAST has changed very much. There are so many nice little additions to the environment that make a developer's life so much easier and comfortable. The latest 8.6 is a leap forward with its Scintilla integration. Once you've worked in 8.6 for an hour or two, you won't want 6.0 back.

Then there are of course important technical reasons to migrate: 6.0 is not supported on Windows Vista, 7 or 8. Also not on Windows 2003, 2008 or 2012 Servers. Sometimes images don't even start on newer Windows versions without tweaking settings in WIndows that some shops do not allow for security or stability reasons. 6.0 is more than a decade old.

If you don't trust me, try an evaluation version for yourself. You can download it from Instantiations' website and play with it. I am sure you'll love what you see.

If you want to migrate and want somebody to help you, you can contact Instantiations or my company (objektfabrik.de) for assistance. We can offer support and guidance as well as training trouble shooting.

Feel free to ask more questions along the route. And good luck!

Joachim

Am Mittwoch, 25. September 2013 15:13:19 UTC+2 schrieb nicola mondinelli:

Hi everyrbody
i'm wondering how could it be expensive (time effort, the license price is indeed clear) to migrate our application from IBM VisualAge 6.0 (+ windowsBuilderPro,+widgetkit) to the instantiations 8.x version.

Our application is quite complex and contains a lot of code (the icx weights 8MB) and we cannot afford to go into a deep code review/restyle/lift/scream, so, before investing time on downloading the trial version and start importing/testing the big project i'm asking you:

- Are there any constraints when migrating from 6.0 to 8.x?
- there is a yabbadabba magic way to have a painless migration?
- Is there a tool to help with such a migration like mine?
- i'm wasting time?

Thanx a lot!
Nicola

SebastianHC

Re: Migration from VA IBM 6 to VA 8.x. Is it possible?

In reply to this post by nicola mondinelli

Hi Nicola,

how are you doing? Did you give it a try? Any further problems or questions?

Sebastian

Am 25.09.2013 06:13, schrieb nicola mondinelli:

Hi everyrbody
i'm wondering how could it be expensive (time effort, the license price is indeed clear) to migrate our application from IBM VisualAge 6.0 (+ windowsBuilderPro,+widgetkit) to the instantiations 8.x version.

Our application is quite complex and contains a lot of code (the icx weights 8MB) and we cannot afford to go into a deep code review/restyle/lift/scream, so, before investing time on downloading the trial version and start importing/testing the big project i'm asking you:

- Are there any constraints when migrating from 6.0 to 8.x?

- there is a yabbadabba magic way to have a painless migration?

- Is there a tool to help with such a migration like mine?

- i'm wasting time?

Thanx a lot!

Nicola

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