At the same time my 'part time job' needed a better solution for timing of motor sport events - first came the Commodore 64, then the 128 and then the migration from C64/128 compiled basic to PC programs and Clipper fell right into this project.
During this time I had a LOT of fun with Clipper - doing things I was told, at the time, couldn't be done. I didn't believe these 'nay-sayers' and so began nearly 20 years of playing with Clipper (under DOS!) doing things such as driving remote TV screens and terminals; sending live timing and result data to outside broadcasters for live transmission to air on TV; driving secondary displays which were then transmitted via local TV transmitters (the first in late 1986 covering a huge area - at that time - of around a square mile); and then, eventually, feeding live information directly to a web site so that there was no more than a gap of 1.5 seconds from when a car crossed the timing line until it was shown/available on the web site.
Also had a lot of fun back then with the CUG(M) (Clipper User Group (Melbourne)), beta testing products (still don't like VO!) and the others who were also active in these groups and areas.
Ahhh those were the days!
Even today, there are still a couple of clubs using my old DOS/Clipper software for their timing. As their timekeepers say - no having to worry about Windows, drivers - a very basic old machine and they are off and running.
Fast forward to the present and a few health scares over the past 5 years and a progression of prostate cancer into the spine late last year made me realise I have a LOT of data and programming tied up that I really should preserve (in the case of the data) and try to bring into the Windows era (the code). Increasing pain and treatment failures meant there were somethings I shouldn't be putting off for much longer....
The data was the hardest - having to resurrect my old Commodore computer and retrieve data off 5 1/4 disks (remember them??) and translate them from PETASCII to standard ASCII and onto a PC (had fun doing this and now have the hardware and software capability of connecting an old Commodore 1571 floppy drive to a PC and being able to read AND write data to Commodore formatted floppies!).
Now the data is being transferred and stored in MySQL databases (largest table so far has just under 9 million records..)
The code transfer was a challenge as I have effectively NEVER programmed any Windows language until the past few months - decided on Harbour and, initially, FWH 64 bit (before I realised it *didn't* include a 32 bit version and can't justify the cost for it as well, so basically wasted money on this one
)Most of my code has already transferred over without too many problems - the only hassles are display/entry screens because of the add on libs I used in Clipper (Funcky a lot, PageScript and Telepathy) but, because I want a 'Windows' look, this part is more a 'start from scratch' rather than a conversion.
General comment I have on Harbour, HMG, FWH - basically all harbour related libraries and add-ons - whilst the documentation is out there - it IS hard to find and, at times, really lacking in how you use it. Other than this, though, I'm enjoying it and having a bit of fun - well, on my good days - those days the pain becomes too much, even the computer doesn't get a look-in!
Stephen Rowe
