Should I rewrite C application in dot net?

[VM]

I'm about to work on a 'buggy' WIndows C GUI application that was entirely
made in C. All the user controls were all hard-coded and the code is pretty
hard to understand. The application was made several years ago and it has
been working without problems. Unfortunately, the app started showing
several critical bugs and the programmer who wrote it cannot be reached so
we've given up on him.
I'm working on another project and the client asked me to see if I could
find and fix these bugs. I want to convince him to write the program in dot
net. Is that the right thing to do? Where I live, very few people know how
to program in C so in the long run, it'll be harder to find someone that
understands the code. On the other hand, with dot net, he'll be able to find
someone that can work on the code if I'm not available.

Thanks.

[Ignacio Machin \( .NET/ C# MVP \)]

Re: Should I rewrite C application in dot net?

Hi,

I would try to convince him on monetary terms, simply show him how much it
will cost to track and correct bugs in the current app. and how much it will
cost to rewrite it from scrach.

Cheers,

--
Ignacio Machin,
ignacio.machin AT dot.state.fl.us
Florida Department Of Transportation

"VM" <None> wrote in message news:ujfJbHx7DH A.2308@TK2MSFTN GP11.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> I'm about to work on a 'buggy' WIndows C GUI application that was entirely
> made in C. All the user controls were all hard-coded and the code is[/color]
pretty[color=blue]
> hard to understand. The application was made several years ago and it has
> been working without problems. Unfortunately, the app started showing
> several critical bugs and the programmer who wrote it cannot be reached so
> we've given up on him.
> I'm working on another project and the client asked me to see if I could
> find and fix these bugs. I want to convince him to write the program in[/color]
dot[color=blue]
> net. Is that the right thing to do? Where I live, very few people know[/color]
how[color=blue]
> to program in C so in the long run, it'll be harder to find someone that
> understands the code. On the other hand, with dot net, he'll be able to[/color]
find[color=blue]
> someone that can work on the code if I'm not available.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>[/color]

[Itai Raz]

Re: Should I rewrite C application in dot net?

What's the question? If you had to write a GUI oriented application today
(from scratch), of course you'd want to choose C# and not C or C++. Now the
question is ROI. How much time will it take you to rewrite vs. how much time
to find and fix the problem in C application? If it's not significantly more
to rewrite - then your answer is rewrite. It will be very easy to maintain
afterwards, and it doesn't sound like you are going to suffer from any
performance issues.

--itai
"VM" <None> wrote in message news:ujfJbHx7DH A.2308@TK2MSFTN GP11.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> I'm about to work on a 'buggy' WIndows C GUI application that was entirely
> made in C. All the user controls were all hard-coded and the code is[/color]
pretty[color=blue]
> hard to understand. The application was made several years ago and it has
> been working without problems. Unfortunately, the app started showing
> several critical bugs and the programmer who wrote it cannot be reached so
> we've given up on him.
> I'm working on another project and the client asked me to see if I could
> find and fix these bugs. I want to convince him to write the program in[/color]
dot[color=blue]
> net. Is that the right thing to do? Where I live, very few people know[/color]
how[color=blue]
> to program in C so in the long run, it'll be harder to find someone that
> understands the code. On the other hand, with dot net, he'll be able to[/color]
find[color=blue]
> someone that can work on the code if I'm not available.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>[/color]