Most pertinent on v11.4 converting question

DAVID NASRALLA's comment is the most pertinent on v11.4 converting question:

After all that work, what do I get... the same system. (Granted, I'm ready to
more forward to more things....) I would prefer to move to v11 when my systems
would clearly benefit from its new features, rather than from fear of the
current system breaking because Apple has release a new OS (eminent in 2-3
months).

MY TAKE:

Moving any 'old' 4D application onto V11 is a huge undertaking. I have seen
some people use the word 'conversion'. My experience is that this expression is
really inappropriate and misleading. I think a more reasonable term would be
'rewrite'.

There is no way to 'convert' a serious full sized legacy system into V11. For a
seasoned 4D developer it takes three month to get to the bottom of the
Conversion manual and experiment with the various alternatives (it is
impossible to make the critical decisions before mastering the Convserion manual
(600 pages).

Once that phase is over, the real work may start. Count 3-6 month to adapt all
the forms, replace obsolete methods and functions etc. etc. Your first beta is ready.
Let your users work with it and you will see a new big wave of
issues coming at you. This may take another 3-6 months, again, if you are
lucky!

Morals of the story: count a year! Some on this list tried to make this seem
otherwise in various shapes and forms. I debunk their stance by pointing out
that none of those who suggested a short/smooth conversion should/would be possible or
plausible, actually have an V11 version of their products out, not even after a
year!

'After all that work, what do I get... the same system (David Nasralla said), is the
REAL question here. And the answer indeed is that the user will think that he
has the same program, provided you have been lucky, again, and have not been
forced to abandon certain functionality (chances are that you did drop certain
features because the plug-ins are dead).

So, who is going to pay for V11? Walt Nelson - Guam was head on about this
several months ago! The jump from legacy 4D to V11 is much too big! It should
have been done in smaller steps. 2003/2004 to 2009 is silly.

Now the real stinger: after a year of V11 development, and 4D server causing
you and your user's blood pressure to go thru the roof, V12 comes around that
basically sunsets the 4D Language (at the last summit 4D people called it the
'old' language), which is to be replaced by an ECMAScript Language
Specification.

I guess that's why some people talk about V11 being a bridge release. For some
the bridge may serve to jump off of it, instead of going over it.

As always, my 2 cents worth...

Regards,

Harry.

PS: I am somewhat dark sided right now because I just lost my long time
developer, who decided that he would no longer want to be involved with what he
described as unworkable 4D Server.