Microsoft Developer Support Rant
Discussion
Apparently Microsoft have moved all developer support for the product I use to the USA. I cant speak to anyone in Europe! As the microsofty said it may take some time to get a response to your email. No fu
ing kidding considering there is an eight hour time diffrence between Seattle and the UK 
. Half the stuff I am using has been removed from the online MSDN and the other half has statements about it being deprecated to the .net framework. The proudct I use does not use the .net framework and is the current version . So it looks like I will be twiddiling my thumbs the rest of the day.
ing kidding considering there is an eight hour time diffrence between Seattle and the UK . Half the stuff I am using has been removed from the online MSDN and the other half has statements about it being deprecated to the .net framework. The proudct I use does not use the .net framework and is the current version . So it looks like I will be twiddiling my thumbs the rest of the day.Don said:
You contact Microsoft for support?
I have always just Googled for my answers...
I have always just Googled for my answers...
http://groups.google.com
Practically does my job for me.
freddies_dad said:
Don said:
You contact Microsoft for support?
I have always just Googled for my answers...
I have always just Googled for my answers...
http://groups.google.com
Practically does my job for me.
Yep been there done that got the T-shirt. No one seems to have done what I am doing and got the problem I am getting. The problem is I am using Microsoft Visual Foxpro which is not a very widely used developer product these days. I am also using .asp, com objects and the SOAP toolkit. SOAP is throwing up errors when being called from a COM object when instantiated from an .asp page. It doesnt if it is instantiated from another application. Whats weird is a very simmilar setup already works in a production environment but I cant get the setup to work on a development server. The major diffrence being is that the production server is a 2003 server without any security updates.
Were a Microsoft partner so get support incidents as part the partner package. Havent used any this year so thought I would throw the problem their way.
plasticpig said:
The major diffrence being is that the production server is a 2003 server without any security updates.
Fella, I'm having similar problems maintaining about 70,000 lines of legacy Microsoft VJ++ code. I'd love to move it all onto a purely Sun Java platform but time just won't allow and I've yet to find something that will allow me to recraft all the GUI Forms.
Recently I deployed to project onto a Server 2003 platform and some of the OCXs that I used for doing system monitoring of CPU load just don't work and crash the program. I had to completely disable this aspect of the program.
It's a nightmare, the only choice is to port to dotNET or find another platform. Personally I'll never develop under a Microsoft IDE again. Don't get me wrong, I love their IDEs but if your product is going to last more than 5 years there's a guaranteed rewrite just round the corner.
I feel for you, perhaps you should be looking to move onto a MySQL platform, perhaps with an Apache, PHP, Axis combination.
From now on, everything new that I forsee being developed in my company will be done in Java utilising Eclipse adopting a LAMP platform (with the FoxServ equivalent for Windows).
Now that I've found a way to run my JAR files as a Windows Service it's game over for Microsoft related development. I only yearn for a decent form designer for Eclipse and am pretty much ready to spend money on this last short fall that is not being serviced by the Open Source community.
Good luck!
TheExcession said:
Fella, I'm having similar problems maintaining about 70,000 lines of legacy Microsoft VJ++ code. I'd love to move it all onto a purely Sun Java platform but time just won't allow and I've yet to find something that will allow me to recraft all the GUI Forms.
70,000 lines of code we could handle. Our main product has just over 1.2 million lines of code. We cant afford finacially to re-develop from scratch.
plasticpig said:
70,000 lines of code we could handle. Our main product has just over 1.2 million lines of code. We cant afford finacially to re-develop from scratch.
Blimey, 1.2 million? It's amazing just how verbose poor coders can be, isn't it. You need some efficient code like the stuff TheEx maintains.
freddies_dad said:
Blimey, 1.2 million? It's amazing just how verbose poor coders can be, isn't it.
You need some efficient code like the stuff TheEx maintains.
You need some efficient code like the stuff TheEx maintains.
How would you know? Do you know anything about our product and what it is capable of? Have you seen the source code? Are you familliar with the language and development environment we are using?
If the answer is no to any of the above then you have no basis on judging wether the code is poor or good. I can gurantee the answer to at least one of the above is a resounding no.
Edited by plasticpig on Thursday 7th December 18:16
plasticpig said:
freddies_dad said:
Blimey, 1.2 million? It's amazing just how verbose poor coders can be, isn't it.
You need some efficient code like the stuff TheEx maintains.
You need some efficient code like the stuff TheEx maintains.
How would you know? Do you know anything about our product and what it is capable of? Have you seen the source code? Are you familliar with the language and development environment we are using?
If the answer is no to any of the above then you have no basis on judging wether the code is poor or good. I can gurantee the answer to at least one of the above is a resounding no.
Edited by plasticpig on Thursday 7th December 18:16
plasticpig said:
freddies_dad said:
Blimey, 1.2 million? It's amazing just how verbose poor coders can be, isn't it.
You need some efficient code like the stuff TheEx maintains.
You need some efficient code like the stuff TheEx maintains.
How would you know? Do you know anything about our product and what it is capable of? Have you seen the source code? Are you familliar with the language and development environment we are using?
If the answer is no to any of the above then you have no basis on judging wether the code is poor or good. I can gurantee the answer to at least one of the above is a resounding no.
Edited by plasticpig on Thursday 7th December 18:16
Just out of interest, how many people developed the system in the first place and how many people do you have maintaining it now?
best
Ex
JonRB said:
plasticpig said:
How would you know? Do you know anything about our product and what it is capable of? Have you seen the source code? Are you familliar with the language and development environment we are using?
I read that as a bit of leg-pulling. Obviously you didn't.
No I didn't really. Bit stressed out at the moment. This solution is due to be delivered next week
My only option at the moment is dump it on the production server to test it. This is really a big no no as I could potentially break a solution which works. The new version is an enhanced version of something which was orginally developed two years ago. Edited by plasticpig on Thursday 7th December 19:07
plasticpig said:
My only option at the moment is dump it on the production server to test it. This is really a big no no as I could potentially break a solution which works.
Absolutely - you don't want to do that.
Can you not ghost the production server onto some equivalent hardware to give you a test environment?
TheExcession said:
Just out of interest, how many people developed the system in the first place and how many people do you have maintaining it now?
best
Ex
Original development phase was from 1994 to 1998 with 4-5 developers working full time on it. There are currently 3 developers working on it but not full time. Most of that time is spent on adding customer requested enhancements its increasingly rare that we change core functionality. Its basicaly an ERP system that we tailor to match the clients requirements. We have a rather more radical approach to meeting clients requirements than most ERP vendors
JonRB said:
plasticpig said:
My only option at the moment is dump it on the production server to test it. This is really a big no no as I could potentially break a solution which works.
Absolutely - you don't want to do that.
Can you not ghost the production server onto some equivalent hardware to give you a test environment?
Unfourtunatley no. That would require two servers. Part of the soulition sits on a publcly accessible web server and the other part sits on a web server behind a firewall at the client site. The two communicate via a VPN tunnel. I only have one test server here to play with as the other test server is in use.
Its a really weird problem. See below for what I have sent Microsoft. Whats really weird is I have dug out the MSI packages for the working system and installed them on a clean server. It dosent work. The only diffrence I can find is that the server is SP2 and the production one isnt.
1. Development Product and service pack(s) being used.
Visual Foxpro 9, SOAP toolkit 3.0, IIS, ASP
2. Operating System(s) and service pack(s) on which the problem occurs (client, server?).
XP, and 2003 Server
3. .Net framework version and service pack(s)(if relevant).
N/A
4. Database version(s) and service pack(s)and technology used(if relevant).
N/A
5. A detailed description of the problem.
I have a Web service developed in VFP 9 and a COM object which consumes the web service and is also developed in VFP 9. When the COM object is instantiated from another VFP application the web service works fine when it is instantiated from an asp page it dosent work and I get the following SOAP errors:
Type Date Time Source Category Event User Computer
Error 07/12/2006 13:06:56 MSSOAP Generic 16 N/A DEVSERVER
Soap error: Loading of the WSDL file failed.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events
Error 07/12/2006 13:06:56 MSSOAP Generic 16 N/A DEVSERVER
Soap error: XML Parser failed at linenumber 0, lineposition 0, reason is: The system cannot locate the object specified.
Error 07/12/2006 13:06:56 MSSOAP Generic 16 N/A DEVSERVER
Soap error: Loading of the WSDL file failed.
6. Any error messages that you may be receiving (if relevant).
See above.
10. Details of any Virus Checkers Installed.
Norton Antivrus or CA Etrust
11. Given the issue discussed above what would you consider a satisfactory resolution to this case?
A working web service and com object callable from an ASP page.
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