mrmick has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I've inherited a partially complete project using (yuck!)VB, ASP, and a product called BusinessObjects. The VB code compiles to a dll file on NT Server and creates a asp file as well. The dll is used mostly to interact with BusinessObjects and is becoming somewhat huge. I'd like to know if there is a way to use Perl to replace the VB interface to BusinessObjects. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl with 3rd party Apps
by davorg (Chancellor) on Jun 28, 2000 at 18:07 UTC

    All things are possible, but it depends on the type of interface that Business Objects exposes to the DLL.

    If it's a OLE Automation type of thing (is it still called that or is it COM now?) then you can use Win32::OLE or some such to access it.

    If you have a C API, then you can have the fun of writing an extension module using XS.

    --
    <http://www.dave.org.uk>

    European Perl Conference - Sept 22/24 2000
    <http://www.yapc.org/Europe/>
Re: Perl with 3rd party Apps
by toadi (Chaplain) on Jun 28, 2000 at 18:06 UTC
    Don't make it to hard... there are some odbc thingies in activestate, but they're not that advanced.

    What I learned is use the right tool for the job.
    And what I learned is: VB is only good for writing quick iterfaces in windows. So use it likewise.

    A craftsman also uses for certain jobs certain tools, you have to look it that way!

    Off cource these are my opinions and some will diasagree.
    --
    My opinions may have changed,
    but not the fact that I am right

      Thanks for the advice. This seems to be a good philosophy and not entirely limited to programming.
RE: Perl with 3rd party Apps
by JanneVee (Friar) on Jun 28, 2000 at 18:15 UTC
    IMHO. Mixing enviroments is hard to do right. You need a good blessing of knowledge of how *everything* works.

    It is just my opinion on the thing.

Re: Perl with 3rd party Apps
by cwest (Friar) on Jun 28, 2000 at 17:47 UTC
    I'd look into IPC (Inter process communication), or some Win32 Modules.
    --
    Casey