MDL and upgrading MicroStation from SS3 to SS4

Question

I have a large body of MDL code last compiled and tested in SS3. It is still in pseudocode form. Do I need to recompile in order to upgrade MicroStation from SS3 to SS4? Do I need to convert to nativecode? Can you direct me to any FAQs about making this port? Thanks for any info you can provide.

Jan Šlegr · Answer

Hi Ken, 
 Unknown said: It is still in pseudocode form. 
 If I remember correctly, from V8.0 Bentley has recommended to move applications to native code and from V8 2004 Edition (I guess) MDL pseudocode is treated as obsolete. So to have pseudocode application now is not good ... but I know it's reality and I know about more such applications (and help to maintain some) ;-) 
 Unknown said: Do I need to recompile in order to upgrade MicroStation from SS3 to SS4? 
 I don't recall compatibility information, but my experience is that there is no problem to use MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 3) compiled applications with SELECTseries 4. 
 Unknown said: Do I need to convert to nativecode? 
 It's highly recommended. Not because of migration to SS4, but because native code is what Bentley supports now and the compilation itself is more strict, so you can discover not known yet issues in your code. And there are tools that can help you to make your code cleaner and higher quality (refactoring, C++ analysis etc.). 
 In my opinion more important question is what do you plan for future in relation to MicroStation CONNECT Edition? 
 
 If you want to migrate it to CE "as is", it's probably worth to migrate it to native code now and to migrate V8i native code to CE later. 
 If you expect it will be better to rewrite it for CE (e.g. because it's too obsolete or you want to use new CE features), I think you can leave it as is now and to start CE development separately and to migrate mostly ideas, but not code. 
 
 Unknown said: Can you direct me to any FAQs about making this port? 
 There is an article available in wiki. Be aware you have to use Visual Studio 2005 Professional to compile native code applications for V8i, which can cause some complications, because it's very old version not available for free from Microsoft. 
 With regards, 
 Jan