We are very proud to announce that a new great feature will be introduced in forthcoming version 1.32.
Trace-Match is both a technical feature and a methodology to generate functional equivalent .NET application in less time and with less effort.
In a nutshell, from a technical perspective Trace-Match is the combination of the following elements:
- a VB6 trace library (VB6TraceLib.dll) that allows you to determine what method is entered/exited, the value of your variables, the contents of controls, etc. It can send output to file or to any utility that can display debug data (e.g. SysInternal's DebugView utility), profile your code, and more. It even works correctly if a method is abruptly exited if an unhandled error occurs. You need to install this library only on the computer where you do your migrations.
- a .NET trace library that works in the same way as the VB6 library. These .NET classes have been included in our main support library, therefore there is no need to distribute an additional DLL to your customers. As with the VB6 library, you can easily enable or disable tracing as it is more convenient for you.
- two new commands in VB Migration Partner, which allow you to quickly insert and remove trace statements in any VB6 project or project group.
Trace-Match gives you two priceless benefits:
Full functional equivalence: by comparing the trace files produced by the original VB6 program and the migrated .NET application, you can have an "objective" evidence that the latter is 100% functionally equivalent to the original VB6 code. All you have to do is running a set of test cases against the VB6 and .NET executables, and using a file Diff utility such as WinMerge to verify that the trace files are identical.
Integrated debug features: if the converted .NET is being used by your customers or your collegues, you might want to leave trace enabled, so that you can easily see what went wrong if they notice a malfunctioning. If everything works fine, we even provide you with a simple Visual Studio macro that can remove all the trace statements from the .NET project.
We developed the Trace-Match methodology for internal use some time ago, and since them we have successfully used it to migrate many VB6 applications for our customers. By making Trace-Match available to all VB Migration Partner users, we are sure their productivity will dramatically increase. Read our whitepaper to learn more.
... and yes, you aren't going to find this great feature in any other VB6 conversion tool on the market!