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Product Release: Friday, April 22, 2016

gmBasic: Upgrade Engine

Section titled “gmBasic: Upgrade Engine”

gmBasic is a programming language processor that reads, interprets, and rewrites VB6/ASP/COM for .NET (as C# or VB.NET). We are always improving gmBasic so that it is more flexible and produces cleaner, more correct .NET code. This distribution contains Version 30.22 of the upgrade engine and metalanguage files which includes several enhancements:

  • Adds new InitializeComponent event allowing users to modify Form/Control constructors using gmSL script
  • Improves handling of trailing whitespace in ASP Render functions
  • Improves handling of embedded double quotes in ComboBox/ListBox Item data
  • Improves handling of controls that require BeginInit/EndInit in designer code
  • Improves Analytics Symbols Report to indicate method arguments have object type “Parameter”
  • Begins adding a VMS COBOL/DCL to C# upgrade feature. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more.

gmStudio: Upgrade Development Environment

Section titled “gmStudio: Upgrade Development Environment”

gmStudio is a development environment for building custom VB6/ASP/COM to .NET upgrade solutions. We are always improving gmStudio so that it is more helpful and easier to use. This distribution contains the latest build of gmStudio which includes several enhancements:

  • Adds support for updating the project MetaLang file as a batch operation. Learn more here.
  • Improves error handling during generation of Interface Description Files from COM binaries
  • Improves Upgrade Project Wizard user experience and results reporting
  • Adds support for regex group values in Custom Search Reporting templates
  • Adds Unique Text option for all Search reports
  • Adds multi-line regex option for Source Search reports
  • Improves recognizing GUI files both by type in the VBP and file extension for Source Search reports
  • Corrects Source Scan Report to indicate location of matches in the declaration section
  • Improves IDF Scan Report to indicate fully qualified name of interface elements
  • Improves Translation Log Report to simplify source text field

Sample Upgrade Rules

Section titled “Sample Upgrade Rules”

gmStudio ships with a collection of sample upgrade rules that add advanced upgrade features, such as custom COM replacement and diagnostic instrumentation, to your upgrade solution. These XML documents and gmSL scripts are distributed as source and you may modify them to fit your unique requirements. This distribution contains the latest set of sample rules files which includes several improvements and additions:

  • Improves upgrading Windows Common Controls (MSCOMCtlLib) to WinForms controls
  • Improves upgrading Windows Common Controls (MSCOMCtl2) to WinForms controls
  • Improves source code instrumentation scripts
  • Adds upgrading Apex TDBGrid to ComponentOne TrueDBGrid Grid
  • Adds upgrading Apex XArrayDBObject to C# wrapper class
  • Adds upgrading ADODB to System.Date with SQLClient
  • Adds upgrading ADODB to System.Date with ODBCClient
  • Adds upgrading Sheridan ActiveListBar Control to a WinForms ListBar control
  • Adds upgrading Sheridan ActiveThreed Plus SSPanel to a WinForms GroupBox control
  • Adds upgrading DataDynamics ActiveReports 2.0 to GrapeCity ActiveReports 8.0

Sample Upgrade Solutions

Section titled “Sample Upgrade Solutions”

Great Migrations publishes a number of VB6/ASP upgrade solution samples to illustrate the capabilities of gmStudio. All of the samples were updated to reflect the latest product improvements and conventions. All samples now target VS2013 although you may easily modify them to target VS2010 or VS2015.