CONVERSION OF AN EXISTING VISUAL BASIC CONTROL/DISPLAY (GUI) SOFTWARE UTILITY TO VB.NET TO ADD COMPATIBILITY WITH 64-BIT WINDOWS 7, AND TO UPDATE WITH NEW FEATURES.

We need a VB.NET developer to re-write our existing (but old) Control/Display (GUI) Software Utility that was written in a patchwork of older versions of Visual Basic, and last updated over 5 years’ ago. The existing program is used to provide Users of our electronic instruments an English-language Graphical User Interface to send, receive, and display serial ASCII messages over its RS-232 Control Port. We are not looking for a whole new GUI program (although we will consider suggestions for minor design improvements that may come up). We really just need to update the current GUI Utility for some newer features and to re-write it to run on newer computers, while still being compatible with legacy Windows OS versions (i.e. backwards compatible). The approach is to use the Visual Basic code that we have and port it to the .NET framework. We will layout the new GUI screens that we want. A detailed description of the new features and GUI screens are included in the accompanying file, along with a copy of the current Utility (freeware). A possible follow-on project may be to also create a Linux version. This project will involve four specific stages: Stage 1): Re-write the existing Control/Display Software Utility so that it will a) display properly under variable display-screen settings, b) run properly under the Windows 7 operating System, and c) update any obvious old OS limitations to present-day, including generally-used GUI standards for Windows programs (for instance, support for long filenames,) [25% of total budget.] Stage 2): Update the software Utility from Stage 1 to handle new standard message/commands and some desired functionality improvements. Also update the text in the Help files with the replacement text shown in Appendix III to the detail description. [35% of total budget.] Stage 3): Produce a private-label version of the Utility from Stage 2 by substituting a private-label customer’s logo for our logo in the GUI display screens, along with a search-and-replace of the product brand name. [20% of total budget.] Stage 4): Create a special Internal-Use version by copying some functions from the existing Production/Test version over to the new version developed in Stage 2. [20% of total budget.] At the end of each Stage there should be a program (along with its source) that will load and execute on both 32-bit and 64-bit personal computers running either Windows 7, Windows XP, and/or Windows 2000, and that will communicate with our instruments for control and display. We will provide an instrument to use for testing. Resources To Be Provided By Worker: Personal computer workstation with a serial port (or serial-to-USB adapter) VB.NET development platform and related VB.NET development tools Required Worker Skills and Experience: The qualified worker should be a skilled VB.Net developer with intimate knowledge of current Microsoft personal computer Operating Systems (application developer perspective). The worker should have significant experience creating Graphic User Interface (GUI) Control and Display programs for the Windows environment that are User-friendly, technically oriented, and professional in appearance. A list of past project experience, with a brief description of its relevance to this Project, should be provided with every bid. Any actual examples that are provided for review (not required) will help in the Worker selection process and will be very much appreciated. Expertise in Linux is also a plus for possible future projects.