Jose Aguilar's Blog

VB6.0 Legacy Migration article at Visual Studio Magazine

2010-03-03T16:54:00Z

In it March issue, Visual Studio Magazine published an in-depth article about legacy migrations called “Unlocking Legacy Code”. This article talks about the challenges faced by companies migrating from Visual Basic 6.0 to .NET, the drivers behind these migrations and the pros and cons of using an automated migration solution....(read more)

Error Handling Customizations

2010-02-16T21:52:00Z

One very common requirement for migration projects is to adapt certain error handling patterns used in a customer’s Visual Basic 6.0 code to the structured error handling provided by .NET, cleaning up the code, improving its maintainability, and, whenever possible, complying with .NET best practices. ...(read more)

Revisiting Windows 7 XP Mode

2010-02-04T22:28:00Z

Back when it was first announced I made a couple of posts about Windows 7 XP Mode. Now that I’ve been using almost every day for the past few months, I wanted to revisit the topic and write about my hands-on impressions. In this post I’ll show how applications that run under XP Mode integrate with the regular Windows 7 environment. ...(read more)

Visual Basic 6 and Windows 7: Alternatives for Application Compatibility Webcast Recording Available

2009-10-19T18:29:00Z

The recording of last week’s webcast I did on compatibility options for Windows 7 is now online. It covers compatibility options available for Windows 7 (virtualization, Remediation) while focusing on the benefits of using automated migration tools. ...(read more)

New Services Offering: Visual Basic 6 to Web (ASP.NET/Silverlight) Migrations

2009-09-08T20:26:00Z

Today we unveiled something that we have been working on for the past few months – we’ve formed a strategic alliance with Gizmox to offer migrations from Visual Basic 6.0 to the web. This offering uses the Visual WebGui Framework to maintain the same user interface as the original application, inside an either ASP.NET or Silverlight application running on the web......(read more)

Upcoming Webinar: “Actualiza tus apliaciones y consigue el logo de Windows 7”

2009-08-06T17:57:00Z

Next Monday, August 17, I will be presenting a Webinar along with Microsoft for the Latin America region on how you can use several options to get your VB6.0 applications to run on Windows 7 and get the Windows 7 logo....(read more)

Follow us on Twitter

2009-08-05T20:28:00Z

A quick post to let everybody know that you can now follow us on twitter. To do so, you just need to follow @artinsoft, or add “artinsoft” in your favorite Twitter client....(read more)

New Case Study: Wolters Kluwer successfully migrates 3 million LOC using the Visual Basic Upgrade Companion

2009-08-05T20:05:00Z

We just posted a new case study about how an Italian company, Wolters Kluwer Italia, managed to successfully migrate its flagship Accounting and Financial services product from VB6.0 to Visual Basic .NET, using a customized version of the Visual Basic Upgrade Companion....(read more)

Counting Duplicate and Shared Lines of Code

2009-08-04T20:48:00Z

One question commonly asked by our customers is how both duplicate (same file copied in several projects) and shared files (one copy of the file referenced from multiple projects) are counted......(read more)

Prepare your VB6 Code for an Upgrade

2009-07-09T22:38:00Z

When either testing the trail version of the VBUC or actually running the migration tool on your project, there are a few things that you should check to ensure the best possible conversion....(read more)

Website Updates: More Information, Get a Quick Ballpark, Download a Trial and Buy a License Online

2009-06-29T17:27:00Z

In the last couple of months we’ve done several significant updates to the website that I think are worth commenting about, including a completely new website with information useful for your migration projects, a revamped services offering including an online project ballpark calculator, and the ability to purchase a license of the VBUC online....(read more)

How to determine if a binary file has a dependency on the VB6.0 runtime

2009-06-24T18:18:00Z

Here is a quick way to know if a binary file (*.exe, *.dll, *.ocx, …) has a dependency on the Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime. If you are concerned about the VB6.0 runtime not being supported after Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7, this is a trick that can help you decide whether to keep a particular third party ActiveX component in your application through COM Interop after migrating to the .NET Framework or to start looking for a replacement in case the runtime is no longer available (and thus the component will no longer work)....(read more)

If the VB6.0 Runtime is supported in Windows 7, why should I move to .NET?

2009-06-22T19:43:00Z

This past couple of week I’ve been contacted by a couple of developers concerned with Microsoft’s decision to stop supporting the Visual Basic 6.0 IDE, but to continue support for the Visual Basic runtime and some support libraries in Windows 7 and 2008. This made me think about revisiting the topic with new information and changes since February...(read more)

Show Migration Errors, Warnings and Issues (EWIs) on Visual Studio’s Task List

2009-06-18T17:17:00Z

This is a very simple configuration option that can really help you speed up the process of reviewing all migration EWIs (Errors, Warnings and Issues) when working with migrated code. In Visual Studio, you can use the Task List panel to keep track of a list of items (tasks) you need to go through. This Task List can be configured so that it sto show migration EWIs...(read more)

Changing Software in these Times of Crisis Article at El Financiero

2009-05-17T22:46:00Z

The business-oriented newspaper, El Financiero, just published an article talking about the advantages of performing a migration instead of a manual rewrite. ...(read more)