Creating the Development Environment

Create the development environment during the first stage of the migration. The development environment for a migration can be more complex than for an original application. For example, many elements of the development environment itself (such as configuration scripts and Makefiles) may have to be ported. In addition, you will need to obtain the application code that is to be ported and store it in the new development context.

The development environment is covered in more detail in Chapter 7, Creating the Development Environment.

Installing the Development Environment

To migrate the application, you must provide a development environment in which the application can be imported, built, tested , and maintained . Before you start the application migration, identify the following elements of the Windows development environment:

• The source-code control system that will be used during and after the application migration

• A problem-tracking system

• The appropriate assessment and code-profiling tools

• The performance analysis tools

• The testing and debugging tools

• The development environments and software development kits (SDKs)

• The third-party libraries

You should not consider the development environment as a short-term configuration for the migration. Rather, consider it to be part of a long- term maintenance strategy for the migrated application.

Populating the Development Environment

You populate the development environment by obtaining the original source from the source system as a code hierarchy, as an export from a source-control system, or as an archive.

Some code may have been generated on the source system. You need to decide whether the generators will continue to be used, or whether the generated code will serve as a baseline for subsequent developments.

Configuring the Development Environment

Configuring the development environment includes creating or configuring the build process. Some build-process testing is possible, but some (for example, determining whether the code compiles and links) is part of the port or rewrite itself.