gmStudio Release News: Friday, December 14, 2018

Created by Mark Juras
Last updated: Dec 16, 2018

gmBasic: Upgrade Engine

gmBasic is a powerful code transformation tool that reads, interprets, and rewrites VB6/ASP/COM systems for .NET (using C# or VB.NET). We are always improving gmBasic to make it more robust and flexible so that it produces cleaner, more correct results. This distribution, Version 30.78, includes several enhancements:

  • Improves the general ability to produce accurate, build-complete .NET (C# and VB.NET) systems from VB6 code. Most recently, these enhancements were brought to bear on the upgrade of a Property Management application implemented in 44 VBPs referencing 2,520 code files containing 1.9M LOC and 44 third-party-COM components
  • Improves handling of type indicator characters used in variable references
  • Improves handling VB.Data Control and VB.OLE Control
  • Improves handling name collisions between global methods and user-defined types
  • Improves handling handling alternate statement separator in declarations using Global keyword
  • Adds detailed diagnostic logging for Type Interference using <Select TraceChanges="on"/>

gmStudio: Upgrade Solution Development Environment

Powered by gmBasic, gmStudio is a development environment for creating high-performance, custom VB6/ASP/COM to .NET upgrade solutions. We are always adding functionality to gmStudio and making it easier to use. This distribution includes several enhancements:

  • Improves performance of New Project Wizard
  • Improves various aspects of UI such as list sorting, tooltips, labels, etc
  • Adds option to skip build when running New Project Wizard
  • Adds option to ignore missing COM references when running New Project Wizard
  • Improves integrated .NET build to allow for different versions of VS2017
  • Adds a Splash Screen when starting in GUI mode
  • Improves diagnostic logging at startup feature
  • Improves console logging when running in batch mode
  • Improves syntax highlighting for C# in Side-by-Side viewer
  • Improves performance of running analytics reports
  • Improves file/string hashing to use FIPS compliant algorithm   (used for GUID generation and duplicate file / method detection)
  • Improves handling of international character sets by standardizing on UTF-8 encoding
  • Improves performance of Longest Lines report
  • Improves handling of special characters when searching contents of Side-by-Side form
  • Improves handling very large files during Target Code Scan
  • Improves COM description file generator to suppress "numbered duplicate" interfaces
  • Improves performance of task filtering operations
  • Add support for XML declaration element in translation script and gmProj files
  • Improves Author Fix/FileFilter to allow for partial filepath; e.g., just the filename
  • Improves license checking and operation while in Reporting Only mode
  • Corrects problem with adding files to a new ASP project

gmSLAPI: a .NET API for Developing Advanced Upgrade Solutions

Powered by gmBasic, gmslAPI is a .NET API for automating the gmBasic upgrade engine and accessing the semantic models produced by our unique linguistic compilation technology. gmSLAPI also includes classes to facilitate integrating with gmStudio and managing complex upgrade rules. The API was updated to reflect the latest product improvements and conventions.

  • Modifies sample Program to use gmslAPI.Common.DefaultStartUpFile rather than hard coded startup

Sample Upgrade Rules

gmStudio ships with a collection of sample upgrade rules that can be used to add custom features to your upgrade solution. These XML documents and gmSL scripts are distributed as source that you may modify to fit your unique requirements. The sample rules were updated to reflect the latest product improvements and conventions.

  • Improves support for Scripting (scrrun.dll) Migration
  • Improves sample batch code in RunGmStudio.cmd

Sample Upgrade Solutions

Great Migrations publishes a number of sample VB6/ASP upgrade solutions to illustrate the capabilities of gmStudio. The sample upgrade solutions were updated to reflect the latest product improvements and conventions.

  • Improves sample batch regression test scripts