Decompile VFP files

[Charles White]

Hello, I am being exposed to a Visual FoxPro application
that appears to have been converted from Foxpro 2.6 to
Visual Foxpro version 7.

I am not a Foxpro programmer...yet, but I would like to
look at the code so I can see what is going on with this
application.

Are there any tools (freeware / shareware) that would
allow me to decompile the software and look at the code?

I may end up purchasing a copy of VFP or getting it
through my company, but I would like to try before I
buy....

Any info is appreciated....

[Cindy Winegarden]

Charles White <fox...@whitech.net> wrote in message
news:26b001c27d21$363e98e0$35ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA11...

> Hello, I am being exposed to a Visual FoxPro application
> that appears to have been converted from Foxpro 2.6 to
> Visual Foxpro version 7.
>

> ... I would like to

> look at the code so I can see what is going on with this
> application.

Charles, who owns the source code - your company or some outside developer?

--

Cindy Winegarden MCSD, Microsoft Visual FoxPro MVP
cindy.wi...@mvps.org http://cindywinegarden.adsl.duke.edu
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro http://foxcentral.net

[Rick Bean]

Charles,
While there are a couple decompilers, you'll need a copy of VFP to look at
all the files generated that aren't .PRG files. In many cases a project has
very little "code" in the PRG files, most of it resides in Forms, Classes,
Reports and Menus, and these are the "visual" components that store their
data in tables that don't mean much without VFP! This is not like Visual
Basic, where even the visual components are based on text files.

Rick

"Charles White" <fox...@whitech.net> wrote in message
news:26b001c27d21$363e98e0$35ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA11...

[JC]

If the code has been converted to "class methods" (standard place for code
for VFP), you can read it with a variety of tools, though none as
satisfactory as VFP itself. Excel comes to mind, though even flat text
editors can (albeit in a poor format) show you the actual bits of code.

JC

"Charles White" <fox...@whitech.net> wrote in message
news:26b001c27d21$363e98e0$35ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA11...

[Charles White]

My company owns the source code. I am working through
channels to get the source code, but it is under lock and
key.

>.
>

[Charles White]

There are EXE files I want to look at as well as FXP files.
I would assume the EXE files will need VFP to view, but
what about the FXP files?

>.
>

[Fred Taylor]

Neither .EXE nor .FXP files contain viewable code. ReFox can break the .EXE
down into it's component parts (.FXP's, .VCX's, .SCX's, etc.) and then can
also break the .FXP back into its source .PRG. It can also take .VCX's, and
.SCX's and restore the source of the method code into those, also. Then the
best way to view these components is with VFP.
--

Fred
Microsoft Visual FoxPro MVP
Please respond only to the newsgroups so that all may benefit.

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[gerry]

whether or not exe's contain viewable source code depends on how you created
the exe.
with debugging on and encryption off , almost all source code in an exe can
be plainly viewed using notepad , i think about the only source code that is
not included in this case is from PRGs.

"Fred Taylor" <fta...@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:OqV7DrkfCHA.1256@tkmsftngp10...

[Cindy Winegarden]

Charles White <fox...@whitech.net> wrote in message

news:102c501c27e49$5f9d1e40$3aef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA09...

> My company owns the source code. I am working through
> channels to get the source code, but it is under lock and
> key.

Ah! If you want to see the innards of that particular software then you're
stuck, but if you just want code examples there are lots around. Even so,
you won't get far without a copy of VFP.

I'd stick with going through channels unless you're willing to risk
disciplinary actions.