Comments on: What is a "legacy" application? http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224 David Intersimone (David I) CodeGear blog about programming, languages, history, and more. Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:02:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.3-2.2.1 By: Randy http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224#comment-929 Randy Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:21:49 +0000 http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224#comment-929 This issue came up at our software company very recently. Almost 3 years ago we were aquired and a new layer of management was brought in with of course a Microsoft zipperhead mentality. Our product had been thriving from 10 years of Borland technology, but since it didn't have a pool of millions of MS developer resources, a change was neccessary. They immediately branded the Delphi product as Legacy and began the process of rewriting the application. Their heads were so far up their netherlands, they refused to even look at the "old" application, even though over 24,000 users loved it. It was not a .Net hosted service, so it must be aniquated... <br> <br>Well, that was years ago and the C#.Net team has yet to produce anything deliver a product, and yet we're still called Legacy. A company wide email went out to list a job opening in the Legacy product department...this was the first time the term was used in a public broadcast. My staff of 8 was more than a bit ruffled. Many emails bantered about with legacy definitions and good rebuttles. Several of the definitions were: "an existing application program which continues to be used because the user does not want to replace or redesign it", "potentially problematic since they run on obsolete (and usually slow) hardware, and spare parts for such computers are difficult to obtain", "These systems are often hard to maintain, improve, and expand because there is a general lack of understanding of the system", "The designers of the system may have left the organization, leaving no one left to explain how it works", "inadequate documentation or manuals having been lost over the years", "Integration with newer systems may be difficult due to different technologies." <br> <br>We responded to every issue. Our application is being designed and redesigned based on current user feedback, Delphi does NOT require slow obsolete hardware, as a matter of fact it runs on the full range of machines from Win98 to Vista, 64 Meg P3s to 64bit OS's. There is not a lack of understanding of "Windows" (DUH), the designers have not left the organization (I'm still here and coding as fast as ever), and we have proven to be able to integrate with the new technologies. I for one refuse to be considered Legacy simply because we're not written in a Microsoft language. <br> <br>I'm backing CodeGear as a huge Delphi fan and plan to outperform the Microsoft guys at every opportunity! <br> <br>Randy <br> This issue came up at our software company very recently. Almost 3 years ago we were aquired and a new layer of management was brought in with of course a Microsoft zipperhead mentality. Our product had been thriving from 10 years of Borland technology, but since it didn’t have a pool of millions of MS developer resources, a change was neccessary. They immediately branded the Delphi product as Legacy and began the process of rewriting the application. Their heads were so far up their netherlands, they refused to even look at the "old" application, even though over 24,000 users loved it. It was not a .Net hosted service, so it must be aniquated…

Well, that was years ago and the C#.Net team has yet to produce anything deliver a product, and yet we’re still called Legacy. A company wide email went out to list a job opening in the Legacy product department…this was the first time the term was used in a public broadcast. My staff of 8 was more than a bit ruffled. Many emails bantered about with legacy definitions and good rebuttles. Several of the definitions were: "an existing application program which continues to be used because the user does not want to replace or redesign it", "potentially problematic since they run on obsolete (and usually slow) hardware, and spare parts for such computers are difficult to obtain", "These systems are often hard to maintain, improve, and expand because there is a general lack of understanding of the system", "The designers of the system may have left the organization, leaving no one left to explain how it works", "inadequate documentation or manuals having been lost over the years", "Integration with newer systems may be difficult due to different technologies."

We responded to every issue. Our application is being designed and redesigned based on current user feedback, Delphi does NOT require slow obsolete hardware, as a matter of fact it runs on the full range of machines from Win98 to Vista, 64 Meg P3s to 64bit OS’s. There is not a lack of understanding of "Windows" (DUH), the designers have not left the organization (I’m still here and coding as fast as ever), and we have proven to be able to integrate with the new technologies. I for one refuse to be considered Legacy simply because we’re not written in a Microsoft language.

I’m backing CodeGear as a huge Delphi fan and plan to outperform the Microsoft guys at every opportunity!

Randy

]]> By: Ian http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224#comment-407 Ian Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:35:03 +0000 http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224#comment-407 Having spent a number of years with both Delphi and a COBOL editor open concurrently, I see no difference between them. <br> <br>I am hoping to re-define "legacy" in a few months to mean any application where the code was written by hand. Having spent a number of years with both Delphi and a COBOL editor open concurrently, I see no difference between them.

I am hoping to re-define "legacy" in a few months to mean any application where the code was written by hand.

]]> By: David Berneda http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224#comment-905 David Berneda Mon, 08 Jan 2007 02:53:30 +0000 http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224#comment-905 A legacy app definition is maybe one that has not yet got enough money budget to put lots of programmers working to renew or port it completely to new technologies. It makes much more sense to put the money and efforts onto developing new stuff, if the old apps are still working fine. Maybe that's why holy-grail language+api automatic converters dont get too much attention... <gg> <br>If there was enough business demand, many people would have maybe released just-one-click magic converters that would rewrite all your code,forms,etc into new languages or frameworks. <br> A legacy app definition is maybe one that has not yet got enough money budget to put lots of programmers working to renew or port it completely to new technologies. It makes much more sense to put the money and efforts onto developing new stuff, if the old apps are still working fine. Maybe that’s why holy-grail language+api automatic converters dont get too much attention… <gg>

If there was enough business demand, many people would have maybe released just-one-click magic converters that would rewrite all your code,forms,etc into new languages or frameworks.

]]> By: Bertoncini Luca http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224#comment-904 Bertoncini Luca Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:26:24 +0000 http://blogs.codegear.com/davidi/2007/01/05/31224#comment-904 Great POST! <br>My experience in IT department: <br>1. Legacy applications are used for daily work. <br>2. Legacy applications need a lot of maintenance to run <br>3. It's very, very difficult to change application logic in old (1982) COBOL programs! <br>4. New employees want new Software features (drag & drop, cut & paste, office integration...) NOT available in 1982 software! <br>5. Application Logic is so embedded in code that It's impossible to understand. (=Spaghetti Software) <br> <br>I think it's important to understand if an application must be open to external software. If it's closed (for example low level application running on PLC) there is no need to maintain it so much as a "live" application. Great POST!

My experience in IT department:

1. Legacy applications are used for daily work.

2. Legacy applications need a lot of maintenance to run

3. It’s very, very difficult to change application logic in old (1982) COBOL programs!

4. New employees want new Software features (drag & drop, cut & paste, office integration…) NOT available in 1982 software!

5. Application Logic is so embedded in code that It’s impossible to understand. (=Spaghetti Software)

I think it’s important to understand if an application must be open to external software. If it’s closed (for example low level application running on PLC) there is no need to maintain it so much as a "live" application.

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