the 2 previous answers are true and good - but in many ways the simplest way to estimate the work is to try it.

1st, Ill presume that whatever CPAN modules youre using will not be the problems; it will be your private/corporate code, which has never been tried on 5.8. A simple `perl -cw -Mdiagnostics -Myourmodule` will at least give you a quick look at how many lines you have to touch. Note that this is a poor estimate in any case; in 1 hr you can fix hundreds of syntax errors, theyre unlikely to contribute materially to the cost/risk of the porting project. In fact - you could fix the syntax errors faster than you could read all the changes and diagnostics.

You should review your current systems architecture with an eye towards understanding how to improve its testability;

if it has a DB, do you have a separate instance, and can you (easily, trivally, repeatedly) clone the production database into the dev/test DB ?

If you have lots of flat files, configs, etc, do you have relative paths that would allow you to swap back and forth between multiple setups ?

Id suggest that delaying a port will inevitably result in more work-arounds for things you could get for free - for everything that trips you up, there will be 10 or 20 bugfixes you dont have to find for yourself.

Bottom line, the effort will be dominated by factors we cant evaluate - do you have effective scaffolding which will allow you to fully test the new without interference with the old ?

Take a lesson from Perl. It has thousands of tests - no progress in enhancements or bugfixes would be possible without them.

In reply to Re: 5.005_03 -> 5.8.0: likely issues? by jimc
in thread 5.005_03 -> 5.8.0: likely issues? by menolly

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