[olug] DataFlex

[Obi-Wan]

>> I have a client who has a rather old app someone wrote for them that
>> handles all their payroll. The client said it is a 20-year old app,
>> but I think it has had a few updates along the way, though it still
>> appears to be DOS based.
>>
>> I'm not familiar with DataFlex at all, but looking at their web site,
>> you can get a personal license for DataFlex for Linux for free. Is
>> anyone here familiar with it? Looking at the site, it just looks like
>> a development framework. If I downloaded the development tools, would
>> I be able to access the data and export it to a more common format
>> (even tab deliminated) to try and import to another app?

So DataFlex is the app they've currently got, or what you want to switch
to?  www.dataflex.org is a VoIP solution provider.  That doesn't sound
like the same DataFlex you're talking about.

As for leaving ancient apps:  If they want to convert all their data
to the new format, that may not be as simple as you'd hope.  It wasn't
uncommon for developers back then to invent convoluted, proprietary
data formats and then keep the specs private.  Exporting it then becomes
a matter of reverse engineering it given a giant string a bytes and
what little you know of what type of information is stored there.  If
that's the case here, then exporting their data could be prohibitively
difficult.

Or, they my have stored everything in tab delimited text.  It's hard to
say for sure without looking.

-- 
Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth                             obiwan at jedi.com
   The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
     Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
       promise that You will pull me through.  -- Rich Mullins