[ic] "Interchange 6"? Really?

Paul Jordan paul at gishnetwork.com
Thu Sep 29 18:02:21 UTC 2011


> Wait and see, is probably what I am getting at. We still have 4.8.6 
> running
> for some catalogs here, it's not as if the old versions of IC quit working
> just because newer versions are out.
>
> Just my 4 cents,
> Jeff

Jeff, our concern is not that something will stop working, or that it cannot 
be converted. Our concern is two points:

#1 We're doing a ton of work right now, knowing it will have to be redone. 
So the point in time we can do our current development in IC6, the better, 
and this depends on the next point...

#2 How do you convert something large that is constantly being worked on? 
You can't. You need a bridge so they can coexist during a migration period 
otherwise you'll never have the chance to convert unless you pay a third 
party a ton of money to convert everything for you on short order.

Windows 7 and Xp are a perfect analogy here. If you had apps that run on XP 
and not Windows 7, and wanted to migrate to 7, you had to have apps run in a 
XP mode window. If your app is large and constantly evolving, what do you 
upgrade and when? Do you pause evolution while you rewrite everything?

Do you want you employees looking up clients in one window, then looking up 
the clients projects in another? Going back to the XPmode to see if they 
have proposals (because that part is not converted yet). Then we need a few 
enhancements to the proposal system? We'll, guess we're spending money on 
our XP app again only to at some point rebuild it. You create a vicious 
circle.

There is absolutely zero chance I am taking that path.  There has to be a 
bridge that makes it appear and work as a single system, and gives people *a 
chance* to migrate.

None of these are concerns if you maintain shops that evolve sparingly were 
you can zap a convert over a long weekend. If I cut my phone line today, I 
still have easily 5 years of slated IC enhancements. My clients are life 
long and they have vast plans that they are unable to pay for all at once, 
so we have a priority schedule. Pause for a year and rebuild is not in the 
schedule, and neither is pour money into something that is no longer a long 
term investment.

There has to be a bridge. The sooner we have a plan for a bridge, the more 
valuable IC becomes again. The sooner we have access to a bridge, the less 
money we'll have to waste.

Paul





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