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Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all

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On 28-Jul-11 23:38, buck wrote:
> I can't ask the original coder what he was thinking because he's dead, 
> having fallen off a mountain while attempting to climb it.

Hopefully, he commented his code.  Novice programmers, take note.

> Everyone seems to want to know what this code does.  There are 10 
> objects that get linked into a TSR executable.

There's your first problem.  While you don't say what the new target
platform is, a "TSR" is a purely DOS concept and there is no 64-bit DOS.
 I assume your "64-bit" OS is either Windows or Unix, so you're already
looking at a fairly significant rewrite.

> As concisely as I can describe it, it provides an interface into
> ISAM low level functions (add, delete, read, update, etc), "blasts"
> templates to the monitor, keeps track of how many users, allows only
> one instance per user, beeps the speaker...

Aside from "beeping the speaker", those are all functions I suspect you
would want in a "service" (Windows) or "daemon" (Unix).

However, I wonder if the "correct" solution would be rewriting the
entire application set to use a COTS database such as MySQL or SQLite.
That approach might have been "too slow" on PC hardware in the 1980s,
but it's not today, and would probably require less total effort
considering how much open-source code you could leverage.

> Yes I can compile it using the DeSmet development tools.  It has been 
> working error-free since 1989 - and before, prior to a few small 
> changes for much longer than that (though I don't know just how long.  
> I started working for the company January 1987.

Well, that's something at least.  Many times, when folks arrive with
questions like this, they don't even have the original tool chain.  I'm
not sure how much it will help in this case, though.

> It seems that the concensus is that this project is fesable, but not 
> by me.  I need more time to think about it, but will take all advice 
> strongly into consideration.

Please don't take that as an insult; we're just reacting to the skill
level implied by your original questions, which might not be correct
based on this follow-up.  However, what you seem to be asking for will
require significant skill in two different languages and two different
platforms, and probably databases as well.

S

-- 
Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

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Thread

13 year old C source - Thanks to all buck <buck@private.mil> - 2011-07-29 04:38 +0000
  Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> - 2011-07-29 10:37 -0400
  Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Kenneth Brody <kenbrody@spamcop.net> - 2011-07-29 11:02 -0400
  Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-07-29 08:44 -0700
    Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all blp@cs.stanford.edu (Ben Pfaff) - 2011-07-29 09:26 -0700
      Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> - 2011-07-29 12:42 -0400
        Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-07-29 11:16 -0700
      Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2011-07-29 23:23 +0100
      Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2011-07-29 17:01 -0600
        Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Gene <gene.ressler@gmail.com> - 2011-08-02 16:20 -0700
  Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2011-07-29 11:03 -0500
  Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2011-07-29 16:57 -0600
    Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all buck <buck@private.mil> - 2011-08-02 17:11 +0000
      Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2011-08-02 12:29 -0600
  Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Gene <gene.ressler@gmail.com> - 2011-07-31 06:10 -0700
  Re: 13 year old C source - Thanks to all Michael Press <rubrum@pacbell.net> - 2011-08-03 21:08 -0700

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