Time for a Plan B. If you've read the first post in this series you'll know how my Plan A - to replace the old .Net framework in my huge codebase with the latest version of .NET and fix all the breaking changes - failed magnificently.

Filled with panic, I contemplated my options. I could resign. I could hire consultants to do the work for me. I could use the Microsoft Migration tools. I could try to come up with some hybrid solution that allowed new code to run on the new framework whilst the existing code chugged along on the old. In the end I spoke to senior (non-programmer) colleagues and came clean about the problem. After all, just because I hadn't really understood the situation up until then, didn't make the situation worse. I would have had to do the migration at some stage anyway.

The best option seemed to me to speak to some consultants and get their advice. They said they would be able to help but it turned out that the cost would be completely prohibitive; I work for a charity and there is just no way we could ever justify spending that much money. I went back to the drawing board or, more accurately, to lying awake for hours every night, in the lead up to Christmas 2022. By the end of the year, during the Christmas holidays, I started to form a plan of action. But for now ...

Over and out.

Matt