Good morning all,
We’ve developed a robust method for converting our entire Progress codebase into a “metaschema” (database layer). This metaschema mirrors a graph structure, using keys rather than direct relationships, which allows us to analyze the codebase in novel ways. Recently, we converted our entire schema to Neo4j - this process took just a couple of days with our internal tools, and it’s proven to be a powerful approach for understanding and modernizing legacy Progress systems.
Now with AI integration, we’re seeing unique advantages: rather than embedding whole methods into an AI context (as with Cursor or Windsurf), our system can trace specific code paths, dramatically reducing token usage and improving relevance and accuracy. This is especially valuable given the complexity of older Progress codebases (we fully support v9 and massive logic blocks/files), which many newer AI IDEs don’t handle well. We're thinking this could be helpful for moving from older v9 to newer web options from Progress at one time rather than involving any hand coding.
I’m posting for a few reasons:
Tom
We’ve developed a robust method for converting our entire Progress codebase into a “metaschema” (database layer). This metaschema mirrors a graph structure, using keys rather than direct relationships, which allows us to analyze the codebase in novel ways. Recently, we converted our entire schema to Neo4j - this process took just a couple of days with our internal tools, and it’s proven to be a powerful approach for understanding and modernizing legacy Progress systems.
Now with AI integration, we’re seeing unique advantages: rather than embedding whole methods into an AI context (as with Cursor or Windsurf), our system can trace specific code paths, dramatically reducing token usage and improving relevance and accuracy. This is especially valuable given the complexity of older Progress codebases (we fully support v9 and massive logic blocks/files), which many newer AI IDEs don’t handle well. We're thinking this could be helpful for moving from older v9 to newer web options from Progress at one time rather than involving any hand coding.
I’m posting for a few reasons:
- Interest check: Are others here interested in this concept, or in sharing experiences with similar approaches?
- Connection request: Does anyone have contacts at Progress who’d be open to a conversation about partnership or collaboration? I haven’t had much luck via email or LinkedIn.
- Early users: Would anyone running an older Progress environment have an interest in trying this tool out in the near future?
Tom
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