Mark Juras's Blog

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Last updated: Feb 11, 2017 by Mark Juras

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New Support Statements
Mark Juras posted on Mar 27, 2023
Great Migrations publishes FAQ articles and other information to help teams learn and use gmStudio.  You can find all of the gmStudio FAQs on the Great Migrations portal. https://greatmigrations.atlassian.net/wiki/display/GMG/Great+Migrations+FAQs Support Statement: Upgrading a COM Component property to a WinForms Static property https://greatmigrations.atlassian.…
Samples changed to demonstrate different approach for deep migration
Mark Juras posted on Dec 19, 2019
The Dec-2019 Release introduces a change in how some of the samples do COM API upgrades. In prior releases, the deep migration work in the samples was partially done by DLLs developed using our C-based API (gmNI).  gmNI is not available for typical gmStudio users, and we wanted to rework the samples using our scripting language, gmSL. In addition, prior releases of the samples used custom COM Interface Description Files (IDFs). The custom IDFs are a convenient way to map a COM API to its .…
It's been 20 years
Mark Juras posted on Jan 08, 2019
Happy New Year! 2019 is here and it is almost 20 years since the last major release of Visual Basic classic (VB6). Companies have been implementing business functionality as VB6 (or ASP classic) code for over two decades. And while these legacy applications are essential to business, their dependence on VB6/ASP/COM is a serious risk for the users of these applications.…
Using RefactorLibraries Files for COM API replacement
Mark Juras posted on Oct 10, 2018
Overview Upgrading a real-world VB6 application typically requires replacing COM APIs with .NET APIs. gmStudio uses and open, extensible COM type system to facilitate automating these types of COM upgrades. The COM type system used by the upgrade process is declared in a set of files called Interface Description Files (IDFs). IDFs are XML text files that declare all of the elements of an API: the enumerations, classes, structs, etc. IDFs are detailed dow the level of individual method arguments.…
New gmStudio Testimonials
Mark Juras posted on Mar 13, 2017
A number of our recent customers allowed us to publish brief descriptions of their VB6/COM upgrade projects and their testimonials of success with gmStudio.  Learn how small teams successfully completed large, ambitious VB6/COM upgrade efforts with the help of gmStudio.  Southern Company Services -- Operations and Maintenance Tracking System (ASP)  Greycon -- X-Trim Production Optimization System https://greatmigrations.atlassian.…
Is this the year you leave VB6/ASP behind?
Mark Juras posted on Feb 11, 2017
Given the ever-changing nature of requirements, people, and technologies impacting software development, legacy modernization is an inevitable challenge.  Learn about why you should boost the urgency of your modernization efforts in this article. If you still are holding off on your migration project, here are a few reasons why it is more urgent need  First, the official end-of-support for Visual Basic classic https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/Default.aspx?…
TechOhio Interviews Great Migrations
Mark Juras posted on Dec 15, 2015
TechOhio interviews Great Migrations.  Read more here: http://weare.techohio.ohio.gov/2015/11/13/great-migrations-upgrades-code-from-old-to-new/ http://weare.techohio.ohio.gov/2015/11/13/great-migrations-upgrades-code-from-old-to-new/    
Dealing with Variants in COM
Mark Juras posted on Sept 29, 2014
Many COM APIs make extensive use of Variants and this can degrade translation quality.   In fact, I was recently working on upgrading a commercial VB6 application to C# and I encountered the following error in the C# build log: ERRNUM: CS0029: Cannot implicitly convert type 'byte' to 'byte[]' NETSRC: ... frmAttachWindow.cs@287 bbuf = Convert.ToByte(vbuf); ERRNUM: CS0029: Cannot implicitly convert type 'byte[]' to 'object[]' NETSRC: ... frmAttachWindow.…
Microsoft Endorsement
Mark Juras posted on Mar 12, 2014
On December 31,2013 Microsoft posted a page on the MSDN https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/visualstudio/visual-basic-6/vb6-partners-gmstudio?view=vs-2017 promoting our company and products.   On Feb 27th we followed up with a press release.   So far, the response has been tremendous.   It's good to see there are still plenty of people out there who can use our help with rewriting their VB6 and ASP applications for .NET.
VS Versions Support Added to gmStudio
Mark Juras posted on Sept 21, 2013
Update: We added support for VS2013 in the March 2014 Release of gmStudio. Update: We added support for VS2015 in the June 2016 Release of gmStudio.  Update: We added support for VS2017 in the February 2018 Release of gmStudio.  Ever onward!   That seems to be the name of the game in software development.  Our customers need new features in their apps and we developers want new tools, and new techniques to build them.  We are all  just trying to keep up, stay current, keep that edge.…
Improve your ROI for Modernization
Mark Juras posted on May 15, 2013
A couple weeks ago, I attended a webinar by Steve McConnell http://Webinar__The_Business_Case_for_Better_Software_Practices, CEO of Construx http://www.construx.com/.  Steve is a top author and speaker on software development practices.   The title of the webinar was "The Business Case for Better Software Practices".  It made a bold assertion:  Improved Software Practices are Business’s Last Great Frontier Aka “There’s gold in them thar hills! As far as I was concerned,…
gmStudio Roadmap
Mark Juras posted on Apr 29, 2013
The gmStudio product roadmap is driven by an overriding principle: gmStudio users should enjoy outstanding software re-engineering results, with less effort.  We believe that principle is served by three broad qualities: ease of use, flexibility, and accuracy of results.  Our roadmap milestones and objectives all support one of more of these broad qualities.  Learn more about our plans for gmStudio Product improvements in this article.…

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