Blog | Great Migrations

New Reports: Unused Symbols and Late Calls

Dec 10, 2022

Large mature systems often contain symbols that are no longer used. These may be methods that are no longer called or variables and data structures that are no longer referenced by active logic. These unused symbols are often referred to as “dead code, dead wood, Cruft”. Dead code make a system “smell bad” and a form of technical debt, and it can be difficult to identify and risky to remove. An Upgrade Project is an optimal time to deal with dead code because gmStudio can help you identify and remove it.

Learn how in this Support Statement: Unused Symbol Analysis and Reporting

gmStudio Release News: Monday, 10-October-2022

Oct 13, 2022

gmBasic: Upgrade Engine

gmBasic is a code transformation engine that reads, interprets, and rewrites VB6/ASP/COM systems to one of the .NET languages (C# or VB.NET). Based on feedback from our clients and migration projects in the field, we are continuously improving gmBasic so as to help developers more easily produce cleaner and more correct upgrade results. Most recently, this work includes general improvements needed to produce build-complete C# code for a Retail ERP system having 1.2M LOC organized into 73 inter-related VBPs, and to produce build-complete VB.NET code for a Construction Project Management System having 800K LOC organized into 31 inter-related VBPs. The release also includesa sophisticated new utility, gmGlobal, that can automate the process of identifying dead code. This major distribution, Version 40.34, includes many enhancements; for example:

Improves inference of array rank when a undimensioned variant is used as an array
Improves migration of Object inferred as Form used with For Each
Improves migration of the VB6 intrinsic Input function to a Generic method
Improves overall correctness of results when using the Shared Files consolidation capability
Improves overall correctness of results when using the Optional Arguments capability
Improves declaration of stub controls that override Name property
Improves the Global Stub framework for systems that use Implements commands
Improves assembly references added for GlobalStubs translations
Improves avoiding a name clash between external class name and module field
Improves ability to recognize methods called like properties
Improves stub framework generation to allow implementing multiple interfaces (VB.NET)
Improves stubbing Readonly properties (VB.NET)
Improves handling of date literal assigned to const (VB.NET)
Improves handling of operations that involve a late-bound implicit default property
Improves the behavior of Refactor/Remove
Improves migration of array properties
Improves handling name clash between method and one of its parameters
Improves vbCrLf used as an optional parameter default (VB.NET)
Improves translation of late bound reference to a collection item
Improves handling of codes declaring symbols that clash with VB.NET reserved words
Improves handling migration of GoSub in methods declaring optional parameters
Improves logic to detect implicit conversions that must be made explicit (VB.NET)
Improves logic to make default property reference explicit for a Select Case (VB.NET)
Improves detecting and reporting undeclared identifiers
Improves initializing const symbols using an enum entry
Improves reference tracking to allow for Unused symbol analysis
Improves csproj and vbproj content to follow current Visual Studio conventions
Improves processing more HTML5 tags in ASP translations

gmStudio: Upgrade Solution Development Environment

Powered by gmBasic, gmStudio is a platform for analyzing code and developing custom VB6/ASP/COM to .NET upgrade solutions. We are continuously adding functionality to gmStudio and making it easier to use. This distribution includes several enhancements:

Changes Trial License limits; increases duration to 30 days; lowers LOC limits: VB6=5,000 LOC, ASP=2,500 LOC
Adds Source Member to .NET Build Log Report and Target Code Scan Report for VB.NET translation tasks
Adds Translation Audit as a new type of report
Improves IDL generator to allow reporting hidden coclasses
Improves Target Code Scan to report TaskTag rather than File extension in the LocType field
Improves Ctrl-C handling to follow control having focus
Improves Task-list Hot-Key handling
Adds Alt-G as hotkey to Generate and Open VS Solution file
Improves All IDF Scan to search all IDF folders
Corrects issue where malformed XML attributes in ScriptRules file caused gmStudio to hang or crash

gmAPI: a .NET API for Developing Advanced Upgrade Solutions

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

gmAPI was extended and used to implement gmGlobal, a utility that identifies and reports unused symbols across multiple inter-related VBPs.
Adds several low-level functions to support reference analysis

gmMetrics: Advanced Metrics Reporting tool

gmMetrics is a tool for reporting the content of system models generated by gmBasic. This includes Symbol Tables, References Reports, Definitions Reports, and Model Audits. gmMetrics is a console application written in C# using gmAPI. We maintain and enhance gmMetrics to keep it in sync with the model schema and to produce new reports.

Adds more detailed symbol usage data to Semantic Audit Reports
Improves accuracy of References Report
Improves accuracy of Definitions Report

gmStudio Extensions

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. See also additions and changes in gmStudio Extensions Repository.

Improves Environment.std.xml with additional StubBaseClass entries
Adds sample gmGlobalIncludes.gmsl and gmGlobalIncludes.xml to Global Includes analysis
Adds MSCAL.ocx.WinForms.Refactor.xml
Adds MSWORD.OLB.Interop.Refactor.xml

gmRTL: Great Migrations Run Time Library

gmRTL is a sample runtime library that contains classes allowing for more readable translations. Learn more about gmRTL here.

Adds gmRTL.GUI.PictureBoxExtended control to support drawing graphics on a PictureBox

Sample Upgrade Solutions

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

gmStudio Release News: Tuesday, 05-July-2022

Jul 8, 2022

gmBasic: Upgrade Engine

gmBasic is a code transformation engine that reads, interprets, and rewrites VB6/ASP/COM systems to one of the .NET languages (C# or VB.NET). Based on feedback from our clients and migration projects in the field, we are continuously improving gmBasic so as to help users more easily produce cleaner and more correct results. Most recently, this work includes general improvements needed to produce build-complete C# and VB.NET code based for several enterprise systems containing over 2M LOC organized into dozens of inter-related VBPs. This major distribution, Version 40.30, includes several enhancements:

Adds support for specifying a base class for controls in the stub framework
Improves the quality of translations for systems of many inter-related VBPs
Improves handling numeric const values declared with type indicator character
Improves expression of VB File IO Operations: LOF, Seek, FileCopy
Improves handling of parameters declared As Any
Improves handling of name clashes between global symbols
Improves handling of PictureBox.Image.Set
Improves type inference for variants used as arrays
Improves inferring the number of dimensions for array parameters
Improves handling undeclared variables when archaic typing directives (e.g. DefInt) are in use
Improves handling Select-Case with byte compared to enum entry
Improves translation for integer division for VB.NET
Improves conversion of string to double for VB.NET
Improves GoSub migration to support references to local const variables
Improves GoSub migration when subroutines are refactored out of functions for VB.NET
Improves handling of comments in ASP translations
Improves migrating parameterized properties
Improves migrating enumerations in COM libraries
Improves migrating methods with optional arguments
Improves migrating Select Case Is… with Date variables
Improves migrating VB.Line geometry from Twips to pixels in designer code
Improves handling of interfaces when generating translation for a system of inter-related VBPs
Improves handling of custom events and event handlers when generating translation for a system of inter-related VBPs
Improved migration of On Error handling to try-catch

gmStudio: Upgrade Solution Development Environment

Powered by gmBasic, gmStudio is a platform for analyzing code and developing custom VB6/ASP/COM to .NET upgrade solutions. We are continuously adding functionality to gmStudio and making it easier to use. This distribution includes several enhancements:

Adds Reset Filter item to Toolbar Filter button
Adds Line Pragma (%LN%) to ScriptRule pre-processor and editor integration
Adds option to create a starter for a hand-coded IDF (e.g. for when IDF cannot be generated from COM)
Improves handling of Task List context menu hotkeys when task list does not have focus
Improves handling of Task Filtering hotkeys
Improves conventions for using custom tools with gmStudio project tasks
Improves logic for merging ScriptRule elements into the translation script in the order they are defined in the ScriptRules file
Improves user folder scan by suppressing matches in CodeScanList.txt
Improves Source Metrics Report to include DSX report data
Improves Side-by-Side Viewer to include DSX report data
Improves IDF generator to handle typedefs for auto properties in IDL for interop assemblies
Improves Title of the Side-by-Side Viewer panels
Improves Information Panel grid data cache/refresh behavior
Improves Side-by-Side viewer for use with VBScript classes
Improves .NET Build Log reporting performance and editor integration

gmAPI: a .NET API for Developing Advanced Upgrade Solutions

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

gmMetrics: Advanced Metrics Reporting tool

gmMetrics is a tool for reporting the content of system models generated by gmBasic. This includes Symbol Tables, References Reports, Definitions Reports, and Model Audits. gmMetrics is a console application written in C# using gmAPI. We maintain and enhance gmMetrics to keep it in sync with the model schema and to produce new reports.

Adds option to generate System Metalanguage Information File Audit
Improves the quality of reference location reporting for ASP systems

gmStudio Extensions

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. See also additions and changes in gmStudio Extensions Repository.

Adds sample Environment.std.xml to the gmStudio standard distribution
Adds sample rules for setting the base class for classes in the stub dependency framework

gmRTL: Great Migrations Run Time Library

gmRTL is a sample runtime library that contains classes allowing for more readable translations. gmRTL namespace and class structure conventions will replace the legacy RTL conventions in the next gmStudio release. The old conventions (MigrationSupport, MigrationSupportUI, etc.) will be deprecated, but still available as custom migration options. Learn more about gmRTL here.

Sample Upgrade Solutions

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

gmStudio Roadmap

Apr 3, 2022

:::note Summary

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.

::: I was in a sales demo last week and an architect from the client team asked about the gmStudio roadmap so I felt it was a good topic for a blog entry. A sampling of roadmap objectives are presented below. These are only teaser descriptions: the problems and solutions are in the details and no details are covered here. Each of these these deserves its own blog post and much more… stay tuned.

Testing Enhancements

Enhance the tool to assist with functional quality verification. Everyone of our customers can use help with testing and there are many things we can do to help: test case generation, test data identification, automating comparison of old and new systems.

New Types of Migrations

Support new target and source languages as well as application architecture changes, the sky’s the limit.

Support for .NET Core conventions, frameworks, and tools
.NET to .NET - global refactoring
Desktop to Mobile, Desktop to Web, Desktop to RIA
Desktop to WPF
Oracle Form Migration
VBA Migration (Access to .NET)
Embedded SQL to stored procs
Desktop to Web
ASPclassic to MVC
Java to .NET
VB6 to Java
Application Security auditing and risk mitigation
Additional COM replacements rules and extensions

More Prescriptive target application architectures and frameworks

In general, we assume that customers want to follow their own standard for architecture and code so we focus on flexibility, but frequently customers want us to prescribe major aspects of the target design for them. Being able to move a legacy application into a comprehensive predefined application architecture would be a compelling offering to many customers. We intend to look for such frameworks (such as Enterprise Library and various open source frameworks) and help customers adopt them as part of the migration.

gmStudio UX Enhancements

We could do a lot to improve user experience and productivity. Some ideas for improving the gmStudio UX are:

Easier implementation of advanced transformations
improved Visual Studio integrations
Custom configuration files editors
integrating analysis and configuration tasks.

De-Localization

Some of our international customers have international characters in their application symbols (i.e. variable names, function names): they want these removed. This would be a small matter using gmStudio.

Localization

Some of our customers want to rework their codes to work for international markets. There are certain conventions and best practices for writing systems in .NET that facilitate localization and we can generate codes that conform to these conventions and best practices.

Test Planning and Estimation Enhancements

Enhance the tool to integrate code analysis features with test planning and estimation concepts so that extremely large software re-engineering efforts can be completed most efficiently.

Customer Feedback

And last but definitely not least: one of most important items on our roadmap is incorporating improvements that come up in working with customers. These items typically get moved right to the front of the line in terms of our release planning. If you have features you would like to see added to gmStudio, please contact us and reference this blog.

Is this the year you leave VB6/ASP behind?

Mar 26, 2022

:::note Summary

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 (VB6) was in April 2008 — almost 15 years ago. It has also been well over 20 years since the last major release of VB6. As a result, the number of skilled developers who are available and willing to work with VB6 is critically low. This represents a growing business risk for organizations maintaining systems in VB6. The same type of risks exist for organizations maintaining web sites with ASP classic. Keep in mind that no one last for ever, if you depend on key people to help you maintain your legacy apps, they are always getting closer to **retirement;**you would do well to complete your modernization projects while they are available to help.

Second, there have been many recent changes for Windows Operating Systems:

End of Windows XP Extended Support: April 2014
End of Windows Server 2008 Mainstream Support: January 2015
Start of Availability of Windows 10: July 2015
Start of Availability of Windows Server 2016: October 2016
End of Support for Windows 7: January 2020

Third, Microsoft has made huge investments in .NET. Since 2000, Microsoft has published many significant releases of the .NET languages, frameworks, and tools. In addition, Microsoft and others have made great investments in open source. .NET has been well-received by product vendors, developers, and other experts. It enjoys outstanding support from the open source community with compilers, IDEs, frameworks, and other tools enabling .NET development for platforms other than Windows. Going into 2017, we find .NET is a powerful, mature development platform backed by a global community of IT professionals.

Fourth, the last decade brought important advancements in how we build software: improved development operations tools and techniques, powerful new frameworks and design patterns, and exciting new areas for application features. These new tools, new methodologies, work well with .NET. When they are combined with strategic business vision, they make a strong case for modernizing VB6/ASP legacy systems and adopting .NET.

For organizations still running on old, unsupported technologies, this may be the year to plan and implement a successful upgrade! We have the upgrade technology and the necessary expertise in this area to assist you. Please give us a call or email — we will be very happy to hear from you.