The cost of a rewrite (Post: Ars Technica)

Plicker7 said:

It's not even about the database side of VFP, so much as the ease of use of the tool-set. We use VFP for the UI development and SQL for the back-end within our applications. We currently have users who have SQL 2000 and some that are using SQL 2005 with the same VFP developed UI.

In Jan07, we started rewriting the our primary product in C#. In 3 months, we have 7 dialogs built, only 257 more to go. I'm sure it will get faster as we've spent much of our time building the data-access layer, and working the CSLA framework into the design for the Business Object side. But it takes a ton of C# (or VB.NET) code to call a stored procedure, vice the one line of VFP with SQLEXEC() command.

To date, it has cost us 10K in components and tools to support the .NET product, plus the MSDN subscription, and 85K for a dedicated programmer for the .NET product.

The new application will look more modern and be built on a development platform that people know is being supported.