Software Consulting Services
I'm Thurston Clark — database application developer for 25+ years. My consulting practice spans legacy system rescue and modern web development; the tabs above cover each area. This page is the legacy side: keeping FoxPro and Visual Basic 6 applications running, connecting them to the modern web, and migrating them when the time is right.
Call or text (727) 333-2552 · Email me
Stabilize — Emergency rescue and health checks for systems in trouble.
Support — Keep-the-lights-on retainers for systems too critical to fail.
Modernize — Web enablement and full migrations — on your timeline, not a vendor's.
The situation you're probably in
Microsoft discontinued Visual FoxPro in 2007 and Visual Basic 6 in 2008 — yet thousands of business-critical applications still run on them across manufacturing, healthcare, distribution, and government. They persist because they work, and replacing them is scary and expensive.
Every owner of these systems shares one nightmare: the one person who understood the application retired, quit, or died. Now something breaks after a Windows update, a database corrupts, or nobody can log in — and there is no vendor to call. That's when people search for a FoxPro or VB6 programmer at 11pm and find almost nobody left.
I'm one of the people still here — and unlike most, I never stopped building modern software either.
What I offer
Legacy System Health Check — $1,500 fixed. I inventory your application — codebase, data integrity, dependencies, what breaks on the next Windows update — and deliver a plain-English report: what's healthy, what's at risk, and a phased roadmap. Fixed price, no commitment. Sometimes the report says not to migrate yet.
Emergency Rescue — $250/hr, 4-hour minimum. System down, corrupt data, broken after an update. Fast remote response. Call first — paperwork after.
Keep-the-Lights-On Retainer — $750/month. Monitoring, quarterly data-integrity checks, priority emergency response, small fixes included. Three-month minimum.
Web Enablement & Migration — scoped fixed-price. Put a modern web frontend on your legacy database, integrate it with web services — or migrate it fully to a modern PHP web application. Only ever proposed after a Health Check, so the quote is grounded in reality.
Old systems, meet the modern web
Here's what most "legacy programmers" can't offer: I never left the old world, but I live in the new one too. I build modern PHP/HTML/JavaScript web applications — including IndustryDocs' own Stripe-integrated e-commerce and secure file-delivery platform. That means I can do what pure legacy shops can't:
• Web frontends on legacy data — browser access to your FoxPro/DBF or VB6/SQL data. No desktop installs, no VPN gymnastics.
• Integrations — connect legacy systems to web services, APIs, and modern reporting.
• Real migrations — FoxPro/VB6 to modern PHP web applications, deployed on infrastructure I run myself (see below).
I run my own infrastructure: a Vultr VPS on Debian 12 + nginx (CloudPanel), configured and hardened by me over the last two years — TLS certificates via CloudPanel, firewall blocking every port except 443, admin access over Tailscale VPN, plus incident response after malware attacks and hardening against repeats. When I scope your migration or web enablement, the deployment target is a server I've already learned to defend.
Visual FoxPro 2.6–9.0 · VB6 / COM+ / ADO · PHP · Linux / nginx · HTML / JavaScript · SQL Server · DBF / Access / Oracle
Not just legacy: modern development & infrastructure
I don't only keep old systems alive — I build and run current ones. The IndustryDocs platform (Stripe-integrated e-commerce, secure file delivery) runs on infrastructure I configured and defend myself, and that work is available on its own:
• PHP web applications — custom development and payment integration (Stripe/PayPal webhooks and endpoints).
• VPS & Linux server management — Vultr/Debian 12/nginx via CloudPanel: TLS, firewall lockdown (only port 443 open), Tailscale VPN administration.
• Malware cleanup & hardening — incident response from real attacks on my own servers, plus hardening against repeats.
• API & systems integration — connecting legacy databases (DBF, SQL Server) to modern web services.
Two specialties, one engineer
Visual FoxPro
VFP 2.6 through 9.0: DBF corruption recovery, 64-bit Windows breakage, stabilization, and migration. I maintained my own commercial CMMS across every FoxPro version since the 1990s.
Visual Basic 6
VB6, COM+, ADO: compatibility fixes, OCX dependency untangling, stabilization, and migration paths. Three-tier and integration work is my home turf.
Why me
• 25+ years as a database application developer — FoxPro 2.6 through VFP 9.0, VB6, ASP, PHP, SQL.
• Senior programmer at Compliance Technologies (industrial/PSM software) and Rebis Industrial Workgroup — the two companies jointly marketed each other's software, which I built.
• Sole author of Mechanic's Mate CMMS — every line since the 1990s, installer modernized for 64-bit Windows.
• Database-first: schema design, data migration, corruption recovery, reporting across DBF, SQL Server, Oracle, and Access.
How an engagement works
1. You call or email. Tell me what's running and what's wrong — or what you're afraid will go wrong.
2. We start with the Health Check ($1,500, fixed). I look at everything and report back in plain English.
3. You get a proposal — stabilize, support, web-enable, or migrate — priced from findings, not a sales script.
4. You decide. No retainer traps. No forced migrations. Ever.
Questions
Do you work remotely? Yes — remote worldwide via VPN/remote desktop. On-site available when the situation needs it.
Will you force us to migrate? No. The Health Check gives you the honest answer, and sometimes it's "keep it running three more years."
Our system is part FoxPro, part web, part "nobody knows." Can you handle that? That's the normal case, not the exception. Hybrid archaeology is most of the job — the Health Check exists to map it.
What about confidentiality? Your data stays yours. NDAs welcome — standard practice from my years inside software companies.
How fast for an emergency? Call (727) 333-2552. If I'm available we start the same day; if not, I'll tell you honestly when I can.
Let's look at your system.
Call or text (727) 333-2552 Email me
Thurston Clark
25+ year database application developer · St. Petersburg, FL · working worldwide, remote
Looking for my product line? IndustryDocs Tools & Templates — PSM, datasheets, and CMMS software. Buy once, own forever.