So - I wanted to take a few moments to give folks an update on my progress with using AI - as it all is directly related to FoxPro.
My initial trials were all with CoPilot on the M$ main search page in my Browser. That is where I was first trying out having AI generate FoxPro code for me.
Of course, once I realized it could GIVE me VFP code - it stood to reason - it should understand VFP code and thus turn around and allow me to feed it VPF code and return back C# code to me.
I did some attempts at that with some VERY basic screen designs of my own - and I had success. But, as RK had pointed out, it would not be a great idea to upload co. Code to the web for doing code conversions - which I completely agreed with.
As such, I started a deep dive into exploring the usage of an AI engine installed locally on my machine. In this case, it's Ollama - the engine produced by Meta. And, after you install the engine - you then need to load an actual AI model.
For those of you who are Fearless and want to dive into local AI engine usage...
First, you need to DL the main Ollama engine (I'm using it on Windows): https://ollama.com/download
Then, from something like PowerShell - you will run Ollama - but, you will need to call it with a specific AI Model (as well as Model size). So, at Powershell prompt - you would do (as an example): ollama run codellama:34b
FYI - the Model sizes you can run are specifically based upon Memory size of your computer.
There are a ton of Models. For instance, you can filter by model type, like those for coding: https://ollama.com/search?q=code
But - here's w/o filtering - to show you all the models: https://ollama.com/search
Now, in my case - I was trying the Codellama and also Deepseek-Coder-V2. But, I hate to say it - it was all painfully frustrating. Neither one of them was able to actually produce C# code based upon a FoxPro screen. I did also try LLama3.1 - the 8b version - and I was able to get some C# code output based upon FoxPro input. But, It was not completely viable C#.
Then, someone here - a fellow ProFoxer - he suggested Claude.ai. In particular, he actually pointed me to Claude Code - which can run locally. In fact, if you look at the following webpage and play the video - I think the power behind Claude Code is WILD: https://www.anthropic.com/solutions/coding
But, I found I could not try Claude Code for free. So, I opted for trying Claude - the web version - for free. And, I had some great success. Problem was, once I gave it a more complicated screen - I was hitting the limits of what Claude allowed me to do with the free access.
So, yeah - I decided to Bite the Bullet - and go ahead and create a paid account for $20 for one month. I figured, in my case - it would be worth it. Turns out it WAS worth it - and I have been fruitful at giving it FoxPro screens and getting back WPF based C#/.Net code.
As such - now the REAL Fun begins!
As a side note, I was speaking to a programmer buddy of mine back in NYC this past weekend. He has Also used a bit of AI as a tool for his work. But, he fears that AI could potentially take his job away. I told him - he's wrong about that - and, instead - there's a Better way to look at things. That is - to USE AI - to understand it and implement it - and it will end up making HIM more efficient at work. So, instead of Fearing AI - one should Harness AI to their own advantage!!!
So - Upwards and Onwards!
-K