Tag Archives: Clipper for Windows

Relations and differences …

Posted on by vivaclipper

Q: What are relations and differences between this 3 services you’ve been provided: Harbour Compiler, Harbour HMG, HMG-IDE. We need to know exactly when and why use them?

Short Answer :

Harbour : Is a multi-platform open source compiler for xBase programming language, as a continuation of Clipper Programming Language. You can use Harbour with or without HMG; as pure console mode or with another GUI facility.

HMG / MiniGUI : is also an open source GUI Library developed by Roberto Lopez, for Harbour Compiler, designed exclusively Windows platform only. You can’t use HMG without Harbour.

HMG-IDE is a free utility developed by Roberto Lopez, builder of HMG. An Integrated Development Environment including a project builder and a form designer; plus a DB Manager. You can use HMG library with or without HMG-IDE.

As you easily see and cited here with this three products we have a comprehensive and complete Windows programming toolkit or Clipper for Windows ➡

Long Answer

Clipper Description

Posted on by vivaclipper

Developed by Nantucket software and released in winter of 1984, first shipping 25 May 1985.

Clipper was a typical database development language and DOS based. Originally is was used as a replacement programming language for Ashton Tate’s dbase II database environment that could be compiled and executed as a standalone application.

Millions of applications were built typically for businesses dealing with small databases like client management, stock keeping. Many applications for banking and insurance companies were developed were the application was considered too small to be developed and run on mainframes. Clipper often served as a front end exactly for the above mentioned mainframe applications and did very well in this area.

One of the language’s features: the possibility to link ‘C’ and machine language objects made it a virtual unlimited expandable environment. When you missed a feature, an interface or whatever you could program that yourself and the extension made a reusable part of your toolbox. Libraries were also made by third parties but the programmer could also create its own library or enhance the existing ones.

One of the disadvantages, for commercial developers at least, was that a clipper executable could easily be disassembled or de-compiled to produce native source code. There were even commercial packages for that. Between the manufacturers of decompilers and Clipper a covenant was agreed that with a certain code in the source the decompilers would not decompile. But for the hard core hackers no door was kept close.

Around the early 1990’s the users felt a need for a more object oriented environment. Nantucket’s answer was: Clipper 5.0 up to 5.3. This made the Clipper language more sophisticated, but completely OO it never was. Objects and classes could be created but the language needed more, and quickly, should it keep its programmers corps it had created since 1984.

Too late the Nantucket company realized it had to port the Clipper environment to the Windows platform as well and began developing a new project: Aspen: Clipper for Windows. Too late, or at least the research was not given top priority for research and development. In August 1994 (Shipped December 1995) a first version became available and was called: Clipper VO (virtual objects) It was truly windows based but had to cope with many typical first issue bugs that were not explained to the full extend. Again programmers had to build new work arounds and did not feel very comfortable with that idea.

The old stock of programmers however had already switched to Visual Basic (Microsoft) and later Delphi (Borland) This came about because many customers with small database environments wanted to upgrade to window versions in their turn pressured by their clients. And as usual clients wanted their applications yesterday!

A second reason why Clipper never got its previous user base back was that the transition to Clipper VO proved to be too complicated for many senior programmers, and juniors already learned to program in Delphi or VB and later Java.

That was a pity because VO proved to be a very powerful and sophisticated database development tool.

Though Nantucket / CA promised a high degree of compatibility with older developments this did not materialize to the degree to make life easier to former Clipper programmers. The result was that programs were rebuilt in the new environments, the best way to do porting actually. Again slimming down the market for Clipper programmers.

In 1995 Computer Associates bought up the Clipper environment, killed the Clipper DOS version and pre-matured project Aspen, and further developed VO

Other developments for Clipper:

Clipper also could be converted to run on UNIX systems by using a porting tool called Flagship. It runs suitably well.

XBase++ is an OO environment and translates DOS Clipper to Windows but does not enhance the clipper development to an event driven application.

Clip-4-Win is a 16 bit compiler and generated character based applications that ran fairly well within Windows.

Harbour  Clipper got a new life with the Harbour project.

The Harbour-project was started as an open source project in early 1999, the project is still on.

The Harbour programming language is a superset of the well known x-Base language, often referred to as Clipper. Harbour is 100% backward compatible with the Clipper Language, yet it adds many modern features and tools comparable to today’s leading compilers.

Out of the harbour-project, xHarbour (extended Harbour) was started late 2001 as a fork off of the Harbour Project

Clipper is still alive!

Chronology:

1984 first issue: Winter 1984

1990 first issue: Clipper 5.0 (distributed at DefCon fall 1990)

1994 first issue of Clipper VO

1997 Clipper VO 2.5

1999 An open source project: Harbour takes up the challenge

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Note : This post gathered from here.


Five years: A Brief History.

Posted on by vivaclipper

In February 2002 I’ve published the first MiniGUI version.

At that moment, only an experiment whose target for me was research about Harbour-C interface.

A lot of people were interested in the Project and from the beginning collaborated with me in many ways.

Some months later I’ve noticed that the experiment could turn in something more serious.

Being one of my basic targets the easy of use (according xBase spirit) a little time later I’ve added the ‘semi-oop’ interface. That turned the combination of Harbour+MiniGUI in a tool that besides a xBase compiler, offered a GUI, as easy to use as the VB one (yet simpler). This made grow even more the MiniGUI popularity and with it, the problems.

Some people, began an aggressive campaign of lies, pointing not only technical aspects of Harbour and MiniGUI, but personal issues, targeted to create false conflicts in the discussion groups. I let to the readers criteria the theories about the motivations of that people.

This growing brings other problems too. The most serious were the discrepancies about technical issues related with the project direction. Some contributors were not coinciding with my vision of that.

I must accept that could had been solutions for these problems, joining efforts in favor an unique target, but sadly, I don’t knew how to find solution in time.

Today there are two alternative MiniGUI versions besides mine. Yet I’ve wished to find a solution for the differences to make this not happened, that means that the seeding done five years ago, had got results, even much more ahead of my own expectations.

MiniGUI had never existed without its users and contributors and is to them (as every year) my endless gratitude.

Specially to those that got to me the initial impulse, as Grigory Filatov, Jacek Kubica, Ciro Vargas Clemov, Ryszard Rylko (who allow to me to include the HbPrinter code in MiniGUI) and Janusz Pora (I’ve had serious discrepancies with him, but I recognize his enormous efforts and enthusiasm).

For the ‘classic’ OOP defenders that had attacked MiniGUI during years, I want to remember them, that VB turned in the most popular development tool in the world, based in a non-classic scheme for GUI handling, oriented to make things easier for the programmer, let him focus in the problem to solve instead to do it the language complexities. If we are in the xBase world is because this is that we want (or must want). MiniGUI must not be ‘corrected’ to be converted to a traditional paradigm. It is simply an alternative, and as such, we have right to grant its existence.

Regarding the future, It could not be better.

Harbour is in Beta 1, extremely solid and efficient. Surely we have the final version soon.

Regarding MiniGUI, is extremely stable and reliable too. Since I successfully adapted it to work with MingW, we have now with a completely free package (Harbour + MiniGUI + MingW).

Finally, I want to thank to all people that collaborated in some way and whose contributions are documented in five years of ‘changelogs’ and (of course) an special thanks to Pepe Ruano, creator and administrator of harbourminigui.com

There is a lot to do, but I can say with satisfaction that my old dream, a Clipper for Windows free and easy to use, has been reached.

Thanks To All.

Roberto Lopez

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Note: This article borrowed by courtesy of author.

           Published at :  March 03, 2007 here.