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- Xref: sparky comp.databases:7734 comp.os.msdos.programmer:10455
- Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!crcnis1.unl.edu!price
- From: price@helios.unl.edu (Chad Price)
- Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.os.msdos.programmer
- Subject: Re: FoxBase to `C' Contract: How much should I ask for? Help
- Date: 10 Nov 1992 06:02:05 GMT
- Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln
- Lines: 49
- Distribution: usa
- Message-ID: <1dnj8tINNnb8@crcnis1.unl.edu>
- References: <1992Nov9.221720.9793@tamsun.tamu.edu> <BxH80y.H3C@iat.holonet.net>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: helios.unl.edu
-
- rkinder@iat.holonet.net (Robert J. Kinder) writes:
-
- >tpradeep@cs.tamu.edu (Pradeep K Tapadiya) writes:
- >: I have been approached by a company to write a generic FoxBase to
- >: `C' converter. The user-interface needs to be converted to "printf"
- >: kind of statements. The database calls need to be converted to
- >: db-vista calls. Efficiency doen't seem to be an important
- >: consideration.
- >:
- >: So far I used to program on per hour basis. This is the first time
- >: I have been asked to bid for a project. I do not how many man-hours
- >: this work would involve. Since this is my first break, I do not
- >: wish to loose this contract. Would the experienced readers on the
- >: net advice me on how much I should bid for this contract? Any
- >: kind of advise/strategy is appreciated.
- >:
- >Whooaaahh! Converting by hand wouldn't be so bad, but an automatic
- >translator will be a real *big* project. My gut feeling would be 2 real
- >solid people for 14 months, if they know FoxBase, db-Vista, and C inside
- >and out with compiler/interpreter experience.
-
- > Lots of good comments omitted! <
-
- I agree that it will be a LARGE job. I have also been asked to similar work
- and have without exception turned it down when asked to work on a job like
- that on anything but a time and materials basis. It actually sounds as if the
- company does not understand enough of what is involved to know what they are
- asking for!
-
- Approach this one very cautiously! and make sure ahead of time that both you
- and the comany know what the contract is. If the company cannot agree to
- the multistep approach, starting with a feasibility study and a definite
- contract you may want to pass on the job.
-
- My experience with Foxpro is limited to a couple of months of attempting to
- understand enough to write a small database. I was very unimpressed with
- the documentation, and think that if you don't already know it, you will have
- trouble. Remember that there data entry screens are based on a very inter-
- twined mixture of painted screen template and actual program code. It is
- not clear to me how you would go about doing a direct translation of that
- and I would be more prone to thinking that you should do hand translations
- based on functionality.
-
- my $.02
-
- --
- chad
- price@helios.unl.edu
- cprice@molecular.unmc.edu
-