Hi
FoxPro user since 2.0 days, along with .NET since version 2. Enthused to see this project, I had wondered why nobody had undertaken something similar although until the advent of Roslyn etc it was probably like trying to hit a moving target.
I think there is a big market for a product that supports Visual FoxPro syntax as a first-class .NET citizen, with all the legacy stuff (like @ ..SAY, defunct SYS() functions etc) stripped away.
Hello, long time VFP user.
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lumberjack
- Posts: 727
- Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:11 pm
- Location: South Africa
Hello, long time VFP user.
Hi Alan,
Welcome on board. I am sure Robert or one of the developers will answer you in more detail, but rest assure these requests will probably be available very soon.
From Clipper days one of the powers of the language that was implemented in its successor Visual Objects and then Vulcan, was the pre-processor that allowed you to define commands. Once that is in place it would be relatively easy to implement many of the legacy stuff, it was how Clipper was actually designed, e.g.:
#command CREATE [PUBLIC|HIDDEN] CLASS <cls> => [PUBLIC|HIDDEN] CLASS <cls>
#command CREATE OBJECT <o> FROM <cls> => VAR <o> := <cls>{}
So in essence many of the VFP commands will easily map to the X# syntax that will be understood by the compiler. I would suggest to learn the x# syntax, until you can remove the need for legacy stuff, but should allow for porting of VFP code to x# in a migration period.
Have fun!
Jack
Welcome on board. I am sure Robert or one of the developers will answer you in more detail, but rest assure these requests will probably be available very soon.
From Clipper days one of the powers of the language that was implemented in its successor Visual Objects and then Vulcan, was the pre-processor that allowed you to define commands. Once that is in place it would be relatively easy to implement many of the legacy stuff, it was how Clipper was actually designed, e.g.:
#command CREATE [PUBLIC|HIDDEN] CLASS <cls> => [PUBLIC|HIDDEN] CLASS <cls>
#command CREATE OBJECT <o> FROM <cls> => VAR <o> := <cls>{}
So in essence many of the VFP commands will easily map to the X# syntax that will be understood by the compiler. I would suggest to learn the x# syntax, until you can remove the need for legacy stuff, but should allow for porting of VFP code to x# in a migration period.
Have fun!
Jack
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Johan Nel
Boshof, South Africa
Johan Nel
Boshof, South Africa
Hello, long time VFP user.
What I meant really was the implementation of the VFP dialect as it's sufficiently different from the Clipper-based strain of xBase.
Hello, long time VFP user.
Alan,
For example the fact that you have to prefix a function call with the '='(Equals) sign of you are calling it without assigning a value.
On the other hand, I also agree with Jack that a lot can be handled with smart User Defined commands and translated to function calls, such as the many commands that FoxPro has, such as Edit and Browse with all their options.
Robert
I agree there are some significant differences.Alan wrote:What I meant really was the implementation of the VFP dialect as it's sufficiently different from the Clipper-based strain of xBase.
For example the fact that you have to prefix a function call with the '='(Equals) sign of you are calling it without assigning a value.
On the other hand, I also agree with Jack that a lot can be handled with smart User Defined commands and translated to function calls, such as the many commands that FoxPro has, such as Edit and Browse with all their options.
Robert
XSharp Development Team
The Netherlands
robert@xsharp.eu
The Netherlands
robert@xsharp.eu
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lumberjack
- Posts: 727
- Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:11 pm
- Location: South Africa
Hello, long time VFP user.
Robert
Any target date for the #command/#translate implementation?Robert van der Hulst wrote:
On the other hand, I also agree with Jack that a lot can be handled with smart User Defined commands and translated to function calls, such as the many commands that FoxPro has, such as Edit and Browse with all their options.
Robert
______________________
Johan Nel
Boshof, South Africa
Johan Nel
Boshof, South Africa
Hello, long time VFP user.
Jack,
I hope to have it in the product before the conference in Germany.
Robert
We are working on it. That is all that I can say.Jack wrote:Robert
Any target date for the #command/#translate implementation?
I hope to have it in the product before the conference in Germany.
Robert
XSharp Development Team
The Netherlands
robert@xsharp.eu
The Netherlands
robert@xsharp.eu
Hello, long time VFP user.
Yes, Visual FoxPro as I say is in the xBase ballpark but fairly different syntactically from the Clipper/VO world. However I would assume it is largely an exercise in creating an Antlr grammar (which I realise is a non-trivial exercise!)