Monday, January 26, 2009

Clipper on life support ? [28th July 1996]

"Clipper on life support ?- Steve Silverwood's posting of CA's contemplating dropping CA-Clipper development..."

Hi to all Clipperheads,

Steve's posting seems alarming in the sense that CA has indicated on Compuserve that they may drop further Clipper development .

I am the developer of the KarenSoft range of Clipper vertical applications for a wide range of business applications. Visit http://www.cch.com.my/cch/cchss to see what you can actually develop using 5.2e.

As such, I use 5.2e to earn a living and I have not found anything that could not be done with it ! If there is a function that I require which is not available withing Clipper, I'll :

a) write one - beauty of Clippers' UDF concept b) buy a third part product (ok ! is you don't use 5.3) c) look at NANFOR.LIB d) pick up a freeware or shareware on Phil Barnett's OASIS FTP or from any of the fine Clippper WWW sites

What about Clipper for Windows ?

With cheap Pentium PCs with 16MB on board, we can no longer ignore Windows & Windows NT. As a professional software developer, I have looked at virtually all the Windows development tools available to the Clipper developer and have settled for FiveWin+5.2e. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to use Clip4Win as I found what I wanted with FiveWin. BTW, I actually bought Clip4Win and I intend to look at it one day as there are Clipper developers that swear by it...

Trouble is 5.2e+FiveWin produces 16 bit apps... Currently, I don't see any problems but with the growing popularity of Windows NT, the market may begin to demand for 32 bit apps. With no 32bit Clipper, I don't see a 32bit FiveWin..

So what's the choices for 32 bit development tools ?

VO 2.0 - going to public beta soon... and Delphi 2.0 for 32 bits Windows is already available. No comments for VO 2.0 althought it appears to be promising on paper. I have looked at Delphi 2 and it looks very promising though it is pascal based. BTW there are a couple of 3rd party components like Appollo & Infopower that makes it clipper like. That's what the ZAC catalog say..

Conclusion :

Even if CA decides to stop developing Clipper, I'll continue using 5.2e for DOS apps as I have yet to use it to its fullest potential. Moreover, I believe that the numerous non-commercial WWW Clipper sites, including mine and especially Phil Barnett's OASIS will help to keep it alive. So long as there is demand for DOS based applications, Clipper will remain as the premier DOS development language.

As for Windows, I'll continue to use 5.2e+FiveWin for 16 bits Windows apps while I'll look at Delphi 2.0 for 32 bit development.

So is Clipper dead ?

Regards

Chee Chong Hwa

Back to the Future by Roger Donnay [14 July 1996]

This thought provoking article by Roger Donnay, the author of dCLIP(tm) was originally posted on comp.lang.clipper by Andi Jahja of Indonesia. To make it more interesting, I have also added Terry Carmen's rebuttal of certain sections also posted on 29 June 1996. Just received an e-mail on 13th July 1996 from Roger giving his consent to publish this article.

Back to the Future by Roger Donnay


BACK TO THE FUTURE

Like all other forward thinking programmers, I have been watching the horizon anxiously for the last several years. While staying firmly in the Clipper arena, I've done work in Windows via products like VO and VB and have played around with FoxPro and dBase for Windows. But my vision has been foggy. For the first time in many years, I've been groping for my direction. I've noticed that we've all been eyeing each other for clues. The leaders have been following. Microsoft seems to hold our future in its hands. We are bleeting like sheep. But I recently saw beneath the sheepskins. We are not followers! We have been hit in the back of the head with a big stick and sheepskins have been thrown over us. We're in a state of amnesia. It is inevitable that we will "come to" and remember wer'e not prey after all. Before our collective coma, programmers were the leaders, the discoverers, the thought pioneers. We must shake off our myopia quickly lest we all be led to slaughter. To regain our vision and perspective, we must step back and see the larger human picture, not just the technical parts we've been focusing on. This bigger picture presented itself to me recently at the 1995 CGDN Clipper/VO Conference in The Netherlands. On the last day of the conference, I was asked, in a panel discussion, to comment on the future of software development. The other panelists made predictions that included statements about Windows, SQL, OLE-2, multi-media, OOPS, and basically a universe that will have little or no resemblance to that in which most systems developers make their living today. I was fascinated by the technical nature of the panelists predictions and how they described this new world in detail as though it were a well-understood fact that it had to evolve by some pre-written script. It reminded me of the Popular Science magazines I used to read as a teenager. I recall reading how the world would automatically adapt to and accept all modern technology. There would be no resistance to change because those who promoted change did so for our own good with the goal of creating a better world for all mankind. Basically, the message we received was this:

"We'll build more factories with the latest robotic technology, put our unemployed to work, which will allow us to increase the goods and services in our economy and our money supply so we can pay higher wages and have more money for scientific research. We'll focus on creating new robotic technology so we can free up workers to do other things, like space technology research, and mining the asteroid belt so we can create spaceships that move faster than the speed of light to mine the universe. We'll invent a matter transformation machine so we can have unlimited resources without leaving the planet. Factories will be totally run by machines. Everyone will be guaranteed a job. Minimum wage will be 100 thousand dollars a year. College and Health Care will be free. We'll have unlimited money for education, college will be more user friendly, and if you can understand how an engine works you can be a physicist. Eventually, we'll colonize the universe and our new will make disease and death obsolete."

Many of us who believed the above predictions also believed that these changes would occur within our own life-time. As I listened to each person on the discussion panel, I was starting to realize that what was being described was a changing software and information universe that mirrored the above predictions for our changing physical and social universe:

"We'll build an information highway with the latest computer, software and communications technology, which will put our unemployed to work and allow us to increase the number of computers and logged on users. We'll focus on creating libraries of common sub-system objects to free up programmers to do other things like designing desktops and reports. We'll create a single standard for common user interface, a common language and a common protocol to make it possible for every single human being to be "computer-literate". No one will need to go to school to learn how to use the new computers. College will become obsolete. All the knowledge in the universe will exist on the information superhighway and access to this information will be faster than the speed of light. Anyone who understands how to use Windows will be guaranteed a job as a programmer. Eventually, we'll colonize the human mind and our new information system will make human error obsolete because the operating system will guide us through the depths of cyberspace."

Will this new world be created and maintained by a small number of monopolistic giants who will continue to make the rules while software developers and users happily comply and adapt to the "new paradigm"?

Not likely.

Ok, now that I have vented my emotions and basically put myself at risk of being labeled as another "paranoid programmer", let's be a little more realistic and pragmatic and view this changing world in a way that will give us some tools to better handle the transition for ourselves and our customers.

A BODY IN MOTION

At the CDGN I made the following statement:

"Operating Systems and Languages have a tendency to hang on much longer than we think they will. I predict that there will be a Clipper 5.4, 5.5, and even 6.0."

I made this prediction because of what I know about the process of change. As an Electronics Engineer, I spent as many years developing hardware as I did developing software and became acutely aware of how easy it is to evolve technology when human interface and compatability is NOT involved and how hard it is to evolve technology when human interface or compatability IS involved. For example, the evolution of hard-disk technology, memory technology and integrated circuit technology has leaped forward year after year, whereas the basic computer display and keyboard are not much different than those I was designing back in the late 70's.

Those of us who were around when IBM first introduced the PC in 1981 were amazed at how fast CP/M died after MS-DOS was introduced. This "instant death" phenomena led many to believe that DOS would die just as quickly after the introduction of Windows. PC Magazine predicted the death of DOS in 1988 yet it is still going strong 7 years later. There are several reasons why CP/M died so quickly but probably the main reason was because MS-DOS was almost a clone of CP/M but written for a different processor that was being mass produced and could access 10 times the memory. MS-DOS was NOT a new paradigm. In fact, converting CP/M applications to DOS was so simple that it required simply purchasing a cross-assembler or cross-compiler to convert 8080 code to 8086 code.

After the release of Visual Objects, many Clipper product distributors were gearing up for the death of Clipper by replacing advertising space for their Clipper products and training with advertising space for new Visual Objects add-ons and training. What happened next was not what was expected. Not only were the distributors dissatisfied with the poor performance in sales of VO add-ons but they were surprised at how Clipper add-ons continued to sell at the same rate even though advertising space had diminished. What they failed to take into account was that there is a "momentum" in the Clipper world that cannot be simply shifted to the VO world. Maybe they thought that this momentum would gravitate to VO in the same way that the momentum in the dBASE-III world easily shifted to FoxPro. Well, in retrospect it is easy to see that FoxPro does everything as well or better than dBASE and with no required "paradigm shift", whereas VO cannot even handle the simplest of Clipper applications.

Clipper is a body that has been in motion for 10 years, and being DOS-based, also brings with it the collective weight of 70 million DOS users. This momentum is not only impossible to stop but very difficult to even slow down.

THE NEW PARADIGM

At one time or another, most system developers have been confronted with a new paradigm that requires they take a different view of their world. Assembler programmers were confronted with C, C programmers were confronted with C++, mainframe programmers were confronted with microcomputers, procedural programmers were confronted with OOPS and event-driven programming. Windows is a new paradigm that offers great new opportunities for some programmers, and great new obstacles to others. The key to success in adapting applications to the new paradigm is not only knowing "how" an application should be converted but also knowing "if" and "when" it should be converted.

Even though many new paradigms bring excitement and opportunity, they also are a paradox, because while being pulled by customers to support the new methods, the same customers will resist using the methods they were pleading for. Why? Because people have difficulty adapting to change. Systems developers are people too. I try to balance my view of the future by looking at the past and watching human behavior. It is very unlikely that humans will behave any differently in the next 100 years than they did in the past 100 years just as it is unlikely that software developers will behave much differently in the next 5 years than they did in the past 5 years. We will continue to have the same prejudices, religions, fears, political alliances, learning disabilities, and overall dysfunction that has always kept us from fulfilling our vision of the "perfect world".

One of my customers is struggling with trying to decide on a development strategy for the next 2 years. He has a very powerful, data-driven, Clipper application that has evolved for nearly ten years. His business is growing faster than ever and he has never lost a sale to a competing Windows product, yet he is being pushed and pulled to convert his application to Windows. He said to me the other day: "I hear that in 2 years all DOS applications will be converted to Windows." I asked him if there was anything his application could do under Windows that it can't do under DOS and his answer was the same answer I get from most developers. They all say that their customers are asking for the following features:

1. Want to navigate the application with a graphical mouse. 2. Want consistent pull-down menus and better dialogue screens. 3. Want to suspend operation at any time and call up a different program, or the same program in another window to perform different operations. 4. Want to minimize the application window to the desktop with the click of the mouse. 5. Want to move the application window to any position on the desktop with the mouse. 6. Want to run other Windows programs without needing to quit the application. 7. Want to run the application in the background to handle tasks like indexing files, backups, etc. 8. Want to navigate data-entry screens with the mouse. 9. Want to run the application in a Windows memory environment.

What many Clipper developers (and their customers) do not realize is that 5 of the 9 requests listed above are already supported by Windows 3.1 and OS/2 in their "Windowed DOS boxes". The other requests are simply a matter of adding mouse support and better menus to their existing applications and linking in protected mode. This can normally be accomplished in a few weeks or a few months with the help of third-party libraries and DOS extenders for Clipper.

Developers can give their customers the features they want without the huge risk and development cost associated with converting an application to Windows. Eventually, as Windows development environments evolve and the tools and languages become more stable, it may be practical and desirable to complete the tranformation to run as a Windows application rather than in a DOS box window. The developer I mentioned above was wise enough to take my advice and spend a lot less time writing a new system and little more time educating his customers. He tells his customers: "You don't take a boat to Denver, and you don't take a car to China."

TOUGH LOVE

In the early 60's, manufacturing giants who made home appliances, hi-fi equipment and televisions tried to "push" a new paradigm for the home onto American consumers. The fallout from this debacle was a product which became known as the TV/Stereo Console. The objective was to create a product that would supply complete home entertainment in a neat package that was also a nice piece of furniture for the living room. It was quickly accepted that this was the wave of the future so these products gained immediate acceptance despite the fact that they were inferior in performance to systems that consisted of separate components. Such products no longer exist because the consumer "wised up".

In the 90's, Clipper programmers are being "pushed" by other developers to convert their legacy applications to Windows or to even drop support for these applications completely and move over to the new paradigm by finding new customers or by dragging the old customers, kicking and screaming, into the new world. True, some of the force comes from "pull" by customers who have already adapted to the new world but much of the customer pull comes from a misunderstanding of the nature of the new paradigm and how it affects the way we do our work. As each legacy application is converted to Windows (at enormous cost), the customer will wonder why he paid so much money to create an application that is less productive and less reliable than the Clipper application that served him so well for so many years. Eventually, the users will start to understand why they will be better served by programmers who can help them build a "hybrid" of new paradigm applications like word-processing and desktop publishing and old paradigm applications like database management and data-entry. This hybrid environment will consist of "bridges" between DOS, Windows, OS/2, UNIX and others. Software developers have a responsibility to their customers. We talked them into buying computers and software with the promise that we would always be there for them. We need to be honest with them and ourselves and resist the temptation to move them into an environment that we cannot support, that we do not believe in, or cannot return the investment of time and money. I once had a sign over the door in my office that read: "49 out of 50 people will tell you why something can't be done. 1 out of 50 will show you how it can be done." Clipper developers are unique. We are the 1 in 50. That's why we use Clipper instead of dBASE or FoxPro. We know when to use Windows, when to use OS/2 and when to use DOS. If your customer says he won't use a software product that isn't a Windows application, then I suggest you turn him over to a VB or FoxPro programmer and don't look back. Wait for VO. It isn't quite ready for most of us, but when it is, it will be great. Like the prodigal son, your customer will come home and all will be forgiven.

RIDING THE SMALL WAVES

Software developers often get in trouble because they cannot hear what their customer is saying or they respond to the rhetoric that the customer has picked up from the magazines and other developers rather than the real meaning of their message. Most of the time, customers want small changes, not sweeping changes to their working environment and their applications. Windows is such a major paradigm shift that simply converting Clipper applications to Windows is not possible. Computer Associates promised that this would be possible via their new product, Visual Objects (VO) but after the dust settled we all discovered that if we want to write Windows applications we had better start from scratch because the old application code is just not compatible. I fell victim to this kind of thinking myself and even wrote a white paper called "Migrating Clipper applications to Visual Objects". I wrote the paper while attempting to convert my Clipper library, and even though much of the code conversion was possible, the end result was an application that wasn't nearly as good as the original application running in a DOS box. I deluded myself and some of my customers into believing it was possible even though, deep in my soul, I knew it was not practical and would be a waste of time. I believe in Windows and I believe in Visual Objects. Windows is the operating system of the future and Visual Objects is the development language of the future. Both products are magnificent in concept and deserve to be highly successful. Some day, they will come together along with other third-party tools to give us the ability to create database applications that will soar above anything that can be accomplished in DOS. I don't believe, however, that the operating systems, the languages, the development tools, or the users are ready for the complete migration to Windows. Database applications require a much more stable environment than word- processing, desktop publishing, games, or graphics applications. Never has there been a less stable, or more complicated environment than what has been served up to us in this new paradigm. The big appeal for Windows is the promise that it will give us user- interface standards and connectivity standards that will make it possible for anyone, without training, to use a computer. It's understandable, if your'e developing an operating system for use in the home why you would set this as an objective. What isn't understandable is why we would want to establish this as the model for business. Business has never had any problem adapting to computer systems that require user- training. On the contrary, the most popular business applications, like Word Perfect and Lotus 123, were not at all user-friendly and sold millions of copies of after-market books and an entire industry was developed to help train the users.

When asked to predict the future I can't control my urge to get more philosophical than technical. My favorite philosphers are those who tell us how things "will be" rather than tell us how things "should be"., i.e. "Future Shock". In our business, we must not only be sensitive to future shock in our customers, but also to the effect of "Revision Shock" or we can find ourselves quickly out of business. MicroPro, the developers of WordStar, were the first in the microcomputer software business to be dealt this painful truth and they didn't survive. There are people who will always be looking for the "big bucks" or the "big thrill" by riding the leading edge of the technology wave. It takes a lot of skill and hard work to do this successfully. Most of us have been on this leading edge once or twice in our lives and have either succeeded or failed greatly. Others have jumped on the wave because of a fear of being left behind with nowhere to go. Those of us who have been around for awhile know that each technology wave is followed closely by smaller waves that are much less turbulent yet offer the same amount of opportunities. Experienced programmers and consultants have also discovered that it is better to respond to "pull" from their customers than to "push" from their suppliers. You should ask yourself "How much of my development efforts are being influenced by other software developers and how much is being influenced by my customers?" Here's an excerpt from a letter I received from Jan Blum, one of my customers whose Clipper application I have been maintaining for the past year. She says:

"It is a principle of nature that before and after every expansion, there is a contraction. The market and the society are the same. We've been expanding for a long time in the software and hardware world. Those of us in business are contracting for a minute now. We've spent a lot of money and are analyzing our return and catching our breath. We are not ready for more changes that don't work. We are feeling more cautious. I'm not near as ready to buy the latest, the newest, the hottest, the fastest. I don't envy those that do/can. I want something that is solid, not flashy. There is a little anger, a little fear, a sense of having been a guinea pig for the market. I'm contracting. I'll push forward again. But it will be AFTER a pause and I'll be wiser this time."

UNDERSTANDING OUR NICHE
The world of software development is so much different today than it was 10 years ago. For one, the "niche markets" are much larger than they were because the overall computer market has grown by an enormous factor. Each vertical market or niche market has a life of its own. These markets do not react to vaporware announcements and are much easier to predict and service than the larger horizontal markets. Clipper is an example of a niche market that is still very much active on an international scale and will continue to be active for many more years. There are several reasons why I am making this prediction:

1. To many Clipper developers and database application users, Windows database applications have not yet made a strong enough case that they provide a better solution than a well-written Clipper application running in a Windows or OS/2 "DOS box".

2. DOS and Clipper are much more mature and stable than both the Windows operating system and Windows development platforms.

3. A Clipper developer with 5-10 years of xBase programming experience can develop a robust database application much quicker than a Windows developer with only 1-3 years of experience.

4. Most large Clipper applications under DOS load and run faster than most Windows applications with the same functionality.

5. Clipper applications will run on older hardware.

6. There are hundreds of thousands of Clipper legacy applications being used in businesses every day. It is far easier to upgrade an existing application with new features and a new look that use improvements in DOS (like Windows and OS/2 DOS boxes) than to convert it to Windows.

7. Converting a Clipper application to a Windows application is nearly impossible without completely rewriting the application.

Both Windows 95 and OS/2 have introduced a better DOS than DOS. This will give new life to Clipper legacy applications and make them work and look better without needing to change any code. Now it is possible to upgrade a Clipper application with full CUA compliance and mouse-support by simply using an add-on library or upgrading to Clipper 5.3 and a few minor code modifications. The new "better DOS-boxes" will give you a graphical mouse, sizable windows, user-selectable fonts, multi-user support and better memory-management.

THE NEW POLITICAL LANDSCAPE
The conventional wisdom in the software world is basically an understanding that Windows is a "black-hole" that will swallow up everything else including DOS, OS/2 and maybe even UNIX. Programmers have resigned themselves to the fact that one way or another they will be working for Microsoft or will have to go back to the farm. This new wave of thinking comes from the enormous influence of MicroSoft and their desire to control our workplaces and eventually our homes. It seems to me that many Clipper developers are accepting this as some kind of "fate" rather than seeing it as an "opportunity". Possibly this attitude comes from the fact that most products on the shelves at your local computer store say "MicroSoft" on the label and every PC comes preloaded with MS-DOS and Windows. There are those of us who have no problem living in a world in which a single monopolistic giant tells us "the way things ought to be" and will adapt very well to this new system. I can only predict that this may be the way of the near future (next 5 years) but is certainly not the way of the 21st century.

Who would have ever thought that Big Blue (IBM) would be the underdog in this new "race for cyberspace", but I'm suddenly finding myself rooting for them with a vengeance. Why? Because we need choices. We all became Clipper programmers because Clipper was a much better choice than the "more popular" dBASE. MicroSoft's monopolistic practices are crying out for U.S. government invervention and it is very likely that a MicroSoft "break-up" will occur before the end of the century that will lead to the "De-Installation of Windows". IBM is betting heavily that this will happen and have invested a lot of money in OS/2. Several million developers and users are also believers and have jumped on the OS/2 platform. In fact, the publishers of OS/2 Professional Magazine refuse to install a single Windows product on their computers.

CONCLUSION

The more some things change, the more others tend to stay the same. Would you rather read a book or constantly gaze at a computer screen? Is a push-button transmission really better than a stick-shift? Will a mouse replace a keyboard for data-entry? When will the world adopt the metric system? The future has some interesting surprises in store for us, but fortunately, the Gaia principle will keep us from self-destructing. I look forward to writing my final article about Clipper just before my retirement in the year 2035.

Biography

Roger Donnay is the president and founder of Donnay Software Designs, a Boise, Idaho, USA firm specializing in the development of programming tools, dynamic-linking systems, and database management systems for Clipper.

Roger is the author of dCLIP (tm), a DBMS library, IDE library, dynamic-link system and tutoring system for Clipper and Time-Cube (tm), an appointment scheduler for Clipper.

Send your comments to:

DONNAY Software Designs P.O. Box 16330 Boise, ID 83715-6221

Voice - 208-331-2516 Fax - 208-331-2621 BBS - 208-331-2623 CIS - 73227,1225



Rebuttal by Terry Carmen

Subject: Re: Back To Future

Date: 29 Jun 1996 15:12:41 GMT

From: tpcarmen@servtech.com (Terry Carmen)

Organization: Meadowbrook Software

Newsgroups: comp.lang.clipper

In article <4r2878$8t3@server2.rad.net.id>, Andi Jahja says... > >I Would like to Share The Following Article of Roger Donnay:

Nice aritcle, but he's missing the point.

I don't especially care if my customers want a DOS app, or a Windows app or a Unix app or something to run on an HP-41 calculator. If they have a need (real or perceived) and money, that's all the justification that's necessary.

Unless they want something that simply won't work as they expect it to, it's not my responsibility or (or even option) to "reeducate" them.

Donnay says "If your customer says he won't use a software product that isn't a Windows application, then I suggest you turn him over to a VB or FoxPro programmer and don't look back."

"Let them eat cake"? Send them over here, I'm thinking of buying a new car and would like to pay cash.

He also says "Wait for VO. It isn't quite ready for most of us, but when it is, it will be great. Like the prodigal son, your customer will come home and all will be forgiven."

Not likely.

The effort required to get back a lost customer is almost the same as is required to find a new customer (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on what they think of you).

Once they have found that you can't (or worse can, but won't) fill their needs, they'll be gone like a puff of smoke in a hurricane.

The dark reality is that, for whatever reason, Windows comes on pretty much every PC built, and people are conditioned to want it.

It makes them feel good if they can buy software that does what they want and runs under Windows.

When they can't buy software that does what they want, the only reasons they come up with are:

[1] They're using the wrong O/S

or

[2] Their software vendor is incompetent

The answer isn't #1, since Bill Gates is a billionaire and is by definition rich and sucessful, and they do not blame themselves because they have purchased the same thing millions of other people have.

Guess which one they pick?

It's much easier (and more profitable and usually better) to give people what they want, instead of what you think they should have.

If they say "Windows" and you say "DOS", there's a good chance they'll say "goodbye."

Terry

There are many paths from Clipper to Windows... [20th July 1996]

As I see it, there are many paths from developing Clipper apps for DOS to writing 16 bit apps for Windows 3.10 & 3.11 and 32 bit apps for Windows'95 & Windows NT. Except for Borland Delphi which is pascal based, the rest of the following windows development have their roots in XBase :

16 bits Windows

  • CA-Clipper 5.2e + FiveWin

  • CA-Clipper 5.2e + Clip4Win

  • CA-VO 1.0c

  • CA-dBfast


  • UltimAde (VO specific)


  • Microsoft Foxpro for Windows

  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro


  • Borland dBase for Windows

  • Borland Visual dBase 5.5a

  • Borland's Delphi - Pascal Based

    32 bits Windows


  • CA-VO 2.0

  • Borland's Delphi - Pascal Based
  • Programming Techniques for Memory Management (Part 2) by Roger Donnay

    This section written by Roger Donnay is the second part of CA-Clipper 5.x Memory Management by Roger Donnay & Jud Cole.


    The Affect of Databases on Memory Usage

    Many programmers have taken an affection to "data-driven" programming to speed up the development of custom applications. Since CA-Clipper evolved as an X-Base type language, the common approach to data-driven programming is to create an "engine" or "kernel" .EXE program that retrieves "custom" information about the application from a set of database files. The more sophisticated the system, the more data files are required for configuring the application. It is important to understand the impact of databases on memory usage when designing applications that use many databases.

    When a database is opened with the USE command, all the field names are placed into the public symbol table. This allows database field names to be used in expressions in the same manner as memvars. Because this symbol table is PUBLIC, the field names will remain in the symbol table, even after the database is closed. CA-Clipper employs no mechanism to remove symbols from the symbol table, only to add them. As each database is opened the symbols are added, thereby reducing the remaining available root memory ( MEMORY(0) ). It is conceivable that an application could run out of memory if many databases are opened and closed. Fortunately, symbols of the same name are "reused" in the symbol table, so if you open and close the same database many times, the symbol memory space will not be reduced. Keeping this in mind, it is a good practice to use databases with fields of the same name.

    To improve speed operation, some programmers will open data-dictionary databases at the start-up of the program, load the custom program configuration into arrays, then close the databases. This action will reduce the amount of memory needed for data structures and file buffers and lower the number of DOS handles required, but the symbols will still be added to the symbol table even though they may never be accessed by the program. A data-driven application in which the databases are used only during the start-up of the application could be re-designed to convert the database information to a text file to generate a "runtime" version of the application that will load the array(s) from a text file rather than databases, thereby eliminating the symbol-table problem.

    Declare FIELDS in your Compiled Codes

    To prevent the need to add Field Names to the symbol table at runtime, it is always a good idea to declare fields to the Compiler by using the FIELD statement in your source code. This will insure that the symbol table memory is allocated at the time the application is linked into an executable program rather than during the running of the program.

    Managing Code Segment Size ( C/ASM)

    If you are writing code in C or Assembly, then the linker's overlay manager must bring an entire code segment into memory at one time. If you have many large code segments, then the size of the overlay pool may need to be increased. Normally, the requirements of the application dictate the size of the code segments, but it should be noted that a little extra time in optimizing the size of your code will usually pay off if you have a large library of routines.

    CA-Clipper-compiled P-Code is loaded in fixed-size pages so this is not a requirement when programming in CA-Clipper.

    Reducing RDD Memory

    Try to use as few database drivers in your application as is necessary. For example, if you choose to use the DBFCDX driver for compatability with with FoxPro files, then make sure that your application does not link in the DBFNTX (default) driver unless you must have .DBT or .NTX compatability. This is accomplished by modifying the source code in the RDDSYS.PRG that is included with CA-Clipper.

    Using the "Garbage Collector"

    A variety of memory problems can be caused by memory "fragmentation". Fragmentation can be caused when symbols are added to the symbol table or other "locked" memory is allocated before other "unlocked" memory segments can be released. Database languages require that the symbol table be non-contiguous and not pre-allocated but instead must be allowed to "grow" during the application. This "late binding" is the essence and power behind data-driven engines (like many Clipper applications), unfortunately this kind of flexibility can cause symbols and work-area structures to be added haphazardly thruout the conventional memory space. MEMORY(0) can report that there is plenty of memory available but after the program runs for while it exists in many small segments rather that the single large segment that was available at the start of the application.

    When a large segment of memory is required by the application and is not available, Clipper has to try to move around segments that are not "locked" so it can get sufficient memory for the routine that's being called. This is "garbage collection". Unfortunately, symbol memory and other memory allocation are "locked" and cannot be moved. Applications should take into consideration reducing the amount of fixed heap, stack, and VMM memory that gets allocated during the running of the program, and also to insure that garbage collection is forced on a methodical basis to prevent the fragmention.

    CA-Clipper uses a technique called "scavenging" in its memory garbage collector. The garbage collector is automatically invoked during writes to the screen and "wait" states while waiting for keyboard input. Programs that have routines which have few screen-write or input routines can fragment memory badly particularly if a lot of file opening and closing, reindexing, appending, etc. is going on with little operator interaction. It is recommended that you put calls to Devout("") in your code to invoke the garbage collector in the event that you experience "Conventional Memory Exhausted", "Memory Low", or "Stack Eval" errors. My own experience with this method has not always given me desirable results, however, and I have found that placing calls to MEMORY(-1) in strategic locations in my code, such as just before opening databases, or creating large arrays actually produces better results. This method is not supported by CA or many other developers so use this recommendation with caution. Another popular method of perfoming garbage collection is to use the FT_IDLE() function from the public domain NANFORUM TOOLKIT available on many BBS's including the CLIPPER forum of COMPUSERVE. Garbage collection should be forced especially before opening databases and indexes.

    Managing DGROUP Memory

    There is an area of memory in CA-Clipper, as in all large model languages, referred to as DGROUP. This 64k region of low (root) memory is also called the DS (Data Segment) because it is pointed to by the DS and SS registers. Data is often stored in this area because it can be accessed faster than data stored elsewhere. DGROUP is essentially a NEAR CALL area because accessing information in this area is accomplished by a one-word address rather than the more common 2-word addressing required to access other data areas.

    Assembly-language programmers like to store data in the DGROUP area to improve performance of their application. Data in this area doesn't get overlayed and it is insured that it will always be accessible regardless of the state of the application. Interrupt handlers always store data in DGROUP to insure that the data will be accessible in the event of an interrupt. CA-Clipper stores it's stacks and static values in DGROUP.

    DGROUP is structured like this.

    direction of growth | --> <-- |

    +--------------+-----------+------------+---------+----------------+ | C/ASM static | cpu stack | eval stack | "space" | Clipper static | +--------------+-----------+------------+---------+----------------+

    The eval stack is where local and private variable VALUEs are stored. The CA-Clipper static area is where CA-Clipper static VALUES are stored. ITEMs generated by programs using ITEM.API also create VALUE entries in the CA-Clipper static area. Each VALUE entry uses 14 bytes.

    If the eval stack grows into the CA-Clipper static area (or vice versa), you get a UE 667 (stack fault) error.

    In low memory situations, the VMM will allocate "space" to the conventional memory pool. After this happens, if the eval stack grows into the allocated space, you get a UE 668 error. Likewise, if the CA-Clipper static area needs to grow, you get a UE 669 error.

    When the eval stack or CA-Clipper static area expands, and later retracts, the system maintains "watermarks" to indicate the farthest expansion of them. The VMM allocates only the space between the "watermarks". So one way to control things is to make sure the "watermarks" are set to allow your program to execute normally.

    There is very little that a CA-Clipper programmer can do to resolve DGROUP problems other than to avoid using third-party products and/or C/ASM code that uses SMALL MODEL rather than LARGE MODEL programming techniques and replace LOCAL variables with LOCAL arrays. CA-Clipper is a LARGE MODEL programming language and it is recommended in the CA-Clipper API that extensions to the language should also be compiled as LARGE MODEL. Unfortunately, many C/ASM programmers develop libraries designed for speed performance rather than memory performance. I refer to these products as "DGROUP Hogs". These libraries will consume so much of the C/ASM static space that there will be literally nothing left to run the application. If you find that you cannot limit the usage of third-party libraries, then and alternative solution is to use one or more of the methods described below under "Managing the EVAL Stack".

    There are several methods to determine how much DGROUP a library uses. See next page:

    Monitor memory with //Info

    When you start your CA-Clipper application with the //INFO option, CA-Clipper reports the condition of memory at the start of the application. The reports looks like this:

    DS=4F4E:0000 DS avail=30KB OS avail=255KB EMM avail=960KB

    DS= is the starting address of the DGROUP segment.

    DS avail=KB reports the amount of DGROUP available.

    OS avail=KB reports the amount of conventional memory available.

    EMM avail=KB report the amount of expanded memory allocated to the current application.

    When the DS avail (DGROUP) is less than 15k at the start-up of an application, some large applications could experience stack eval errors at runtime. This number is arbitrary and your application may actually run just fine with less available DGROUP, however it is important that you monitor DS especially if your application uses third-party libraries or lots of LOCAL and STATIC memvars. It's always a good idea to make note of the amount of DS avail in your current application before and after you add new functions or libraries to the application. If you suddenly notice a dramatic decrease in DS avail after adding new code, then you should take note that you may be using a function from a library that uses excessive DGROUP.

    Create a .MAP file

    Rtlink and Blinker support a MAP= command that creates a map file with information about segment usage. This map file will show you which routines use DGROUP and exactly how much they consume.

    Managing the EVAL Stack

    If your application uses up a lot of DGROUP memory, then you may be required to re-visit your code and either reduce the hit on the EVAL stack or expand the size of the EVAL stack. In my opinion, it is quite easy to resolve these problems with minor changes to source code.

    Use LOCAL ARRAYS instead of LOCAL VARIABLES

    Every time a new function is called, all LOCAL variables are "pushed" onto the EVAL stack. They are "popped" off the stack when returning to the calling program. If a procedure or function is called recursively, then it can be quite easy to blow up the eval stack with a 667 Stack Eval Error. For example, I had this problem in one of my larger applications due to the fact that programs were deeply nested via calls to a common set of menu functions. I found that my main menu function could blow up the stack if called recursively as few as 5 times. Each time this function was called, 85 LOCAL variables were pushed on to the eval stack. I completely eliminated the problem with about 2 hours of programming and debugging by replacing the 85 separate LOCAL variables with 1 LOCAL array. A LOCAL array uses the same amount of stack space as any other LOCAL variable, therefore I reduced the amount of values pushed on the stack from 85 to 1. After doing this, I could not blow up the stack even if I called the menu system recursively more than 30 times. This was accomplished quite easily with very minor code changes. Here is an example of the BEFORE and AFTER code.

    BEFORE:

    FUNCTION DC_MenuMain( )

    LOCAL cColor, cMenuScrn, nInkey, cTempStr, nTempNum, nItemLen,; cOldColor, nItems, nMsgLen, nHotStart, cBoxColor, ; cMenuColor, cHotColor, cSelColor, cBuffer, nRow, nCol, ; lMouseHit, nSaveRow, nSaveCol, lMessage, cGrayColor, ; nMouseStat, nStRow, nStCol, nEnRow, nEnCol, lMouVisible, ; nPass, aSubMenu, aSubBlock, nElement, aMenuItems, ; aHotKeys, aMenuBlocks, aSubItems, aBlockItems, cType, ; nStart, cTitle, lBar, lReturnVal, lShadow, aMouseKeys, ....

    AFTER:

    FUNCTION DC_MenuMain( )

    LOCAL aMenu := Array(85)

    #define cColor aMenu[1] ; #define cMenuScrn aMenu[2]

    #define nInkey aMenu[3] ; #define cTempStr aMenu[4]

    #define nTempNum aMenu[5] ; #define nItemLen aMenu[6]

    #define cOldColor aMenu[7] ; #define nItems aMenu[8]

    #define nMsgLen aMenu[9] ; #define nItems aMenu[10]

    #define nHotStart aMenu[11] ; #define cBoxColor aMenu[12]

    #define cMenuColor aMenu[13] ; #define cHotColor aMenu[14]

    #define cSelColor aMenu[15] ; #define cBuffer aMenu[16]

    #define nRow aMenu[17] ; #define nCol aMenu[18]

    #define lMouseHit aMenu[19] ; #define nSaveRow aMenu[20]

    #define nSaveCol aMenu[21] ; #define lMessage aMenu[22]

    #define cGrayColor aMenu[23] ; #define nMouseStat aMenu[24]

    #define nStRow aMenu[25] ; #define nStCol aMenu[26]

    #define nEnRow aMenu[27] ; #define nEnCol aMenu[28]

    #define lMouVisible aMenu[29] ; #define nPass aMenu[30]

    #define aSubMenu aMenu[31] ; #define aSubBlock aMenu[32]

    #define nElement aMenu[33] ; #define aMenuItems aMenu[34]

    #define aHotKeys aMenu[35] ; #define aMenuBlocks aMenu[36]

    #define aSubItems aMenu[37] ; #define aBlockItems aMenu[38]

    #define cType aMenu[39] ; #

    Programming Techniques for Memory Management (Part 1) by Roger Donnay

    This section written by Roger Donnay is the second part of CA-Clipper 5.x Memory Management by Roger Donnay & Jud Cole.


    How you write your CA-Clipper code will greatly determine how the application uses memory. Once you understand and become grounded in the basics you will discover that memory management will become second nature to your programming style. You should never write code or use any third-party library without a basic understanding of the impact on memory usage, otherwise you can paint yourself into a memory-deficient corner that can not be easily undone.

    Virtual Memory

    CA-Clipper includes an automatic memory manager referred to as the Virtual Memory Manager or VMM. There is very little the CA-Clipper programmer needs to know about the VMM system other than it requires EMS memory or available disk space for the creation of swap files. After CA-Clipper uses up the available EMS for VMM, it will start creating swap files. In a network situation with no local hard drive or ram drive, this can slow down the application, therefore it is recommended that you set up your environment to allocate from 500k to 1 meg of EMS for average Clipper applications. You may monitor CA-Clipper's usage of EMS during your application by reporting the remaining EMS with the MEMORY(4) function. If the number reported falls below 100, then it is recommended that you increase available EMS by several hundred K.

    If no EMS is available, then Virtual memory can be allocated from XMS memory by using a Third-party product named ClipXMS. See the section titled DOS Extenders for more information on this product.

    Conventional Memory

    The CA-Clipper free-pool (also sometimes referred to as the fixed-heap) is always allocated from conventional memory. I have found, from experience, that applications will perform poorly or run the risk of running out of memory completely if the amount of free-pool deteriorates to less than 50k. You can count on the fact that your application will have less free-pool available after running for awhile than it has at start-up time. The CA-Clipper MEMORY(0) function can be used to monitor the amount of memory remaining in the fixed heap. Opening databases has the most serious long-term affect on the use of conventional memory. See the section titled "The Affects of Databases on Memory Usage" for more details. To give the CA-Clipper application more conventional memory, you must start at DOS with ample conventional memory. After you load device drivers, network drivers, mouse drivers, TSR's, etc. your environment just may not have sufficient conventional memory remaining to run your Clipper application. The new generation of expanded memory managers are designed to not only create EMS/XMS memory but they also will load drivers and TSR's into the upper memory blocks (UMB) area of memory above 640k so they will not use up valuable conventional memory. I have used QEMM and 386MAX in the past to accomplish this task but have recently found that, on some systems, the MEMMAKER.EXE utility and the EMM386 driver supplied with DOS 6.x are adequate in creating a better memory environment.

    SYMBOL Management

    For a dynamic-overlay manager to work effectively, it is important that it load overlays at the smallest possible code-segment level, i.e., the procedure/function rather than the entire object. This requires managing the symbol table separately from the code and data, therefore, these linkers place the symbol table into the root memory area and eachfunction into a separate overlay segment.

    Symbols cannot be overlayed or swapped to VMM, therefore it is important that you program in a manner consistent with producing the smallest number of symbols in your CA-Clipper-compiled objects. Here are some tips for reducing the symbol table size in your applications.

    Use Constants instead of Memvars

    All PRIVATE, PUBLIC and STATIC CA-Clipper memory variables are treated as "symbols". Refrain from using a memory variable if a constant is sufficient. For example, an unnecessary symbol can be eliminated by changing the code:

    nEscapeKey := 27

    DO WHILE INKEY() # nEscapeKey

    * CA-Clipper code

    ENDDO

    to:

    DO WHILE INKEY() # 27

    * CA-Clipper code

    ENDDO

    or:

    #define K_ESC 27

    DO WHILE INKEY() # K_ESC

    * Ca-Clipper code

    ENDDO

    Use Arrays Instead of Memvars

    Every different CA-Clipper PRIVATE, PUBLIC, or STATIC memvar name creates a "symbol", whereas an array name creates only ONE symbol. The following example shows how to save considerable memory in a CA-Clipper application by reducing the symbol count with an array.

    This code produces 5 symbols:

    PRIVATE cName := customer->name

    PRIVATE cAddress := customer->address

    PRIVATE cCity := customer->city

    PRIVATE cState := customer->state

    PRIVATE cZip = customer->zip

    @ 1,1 SAY 'Name ' GET cName

    @ 2,1 SAY 'Address' GET cAddress

    @ 3,1 SAY 'City ' GET cCity

    @ 4,1 SAY 'State ' GET cState

    @ 5,1 SAY 'Zip ' GET cZip

    READ

    This code produces 1 symbol:

    PRIVATE aGets[5]

    aGets[1] := customer->name

    aGets[2] := customer->address

    aGets[3] := customer->city

    aGets[4] := customer->state

    aGets[5] := customer->zip

    @ 1,1 SAY 'Name ' GET aGets[1]

    @ 2,1 SAY 'Address' GET aGets[2]

    @ 3,1 SAY 'City ' GET aGets[3]

    @ 4,1 SAY 'State ' GET aGets[4]

    @ 5,1 SAY 'Zip ' GET aGets[5]

    READ

    Some programmers choose memvars over arrays because it makes their source code more readable. Source code that refers to hundreds of array elements can look very cryptic and can be hard to maintain. To reconcile this problem, use the CA-Clipper pre-processor to create a "symbolic" reference to each array element like in the following example.

    STATIC aGets[5]

    #define cNAME aGets[1]

    #define cADDRESS aGets[2]

    #define cCITY aGets[3]

    #define cSTATE aGets[4]

    #define cZIP aGets[5]

    cNAME := customer->name

    cADDRESS := customer->address

    cCITY := customer->city

    cSTATE := customer->state

    cZIP := customer->zip

    @ 1,1 SAY 'Name ' GET cNAME

    @ 2,1 SAY 'Address' GET cADDRESS

    @ 3,1 SAY 'City ' GET cCITY

    @ 4,1 SAY 'State ' GET cSTATE

    @ 5,1 SAY 'Zip ' GET cZIP

    READ

    Use the Same Name Memvars whenever possible

    Again, every "different" PUBLIC, PRIVATE or STATIC CA-Clipper memvar in a module creates a symbol. If an object contains several procedures, use the same name for memvars even though they may not perform the same or similar functions. For example, procedure A and procedure B both need 5 memvars. If procedure A declares its memvars with 5 unique names and procedure B declares its memvars with 5 unique names, then 10 symbols are used in the linked application. To eliminate 5 symbols, make sure that procedure B assigns the same name to the memvars as procedure A. This is not possible of course, if the memvars need to be PUBLIC to both procedures and perform different functions, only if they are PRIVATE.

    Use Complex Expressions instead of Memvars

    The following three lines of code represents the method that most CA-Clipper programmers choose to accomplish most programming tasks. It makes sense to code this way for readability and debugging, but if you are writing a very large application, the complex expression technique can save some memory. The following three lines of code will read the disk file READ.ME into a memvar named cReadFile, save the changed code into a file named cEditFile, then write the changed code back to the disk file READ.ME.

    cReadFile := MEMOREAD('READ.ME')

    cEditFile := MEMOEDIT( cReadFile )

    MEMOWRIT('READ.ME', cEditFile )

    These three lines of code can be replaced by one complex expression which uses no symbols at all.

    MEMOWRIT("READ.ME",MEMOEDIT(MEMOREAD("READ.ME")))

    An additional advantage to coding this way is that less free-pool or VMM memory is used because the process of temporarily storing the text in cReadFile and cEditFile is completely eliminated. If you find that creating complex expressions such as this are unreadable and hard to maintain then use the CA-Clipper pre-processor to accomplish the same task as follows:

    #define cReadFile MEMOREAD('READ.ME')

    #define cEditFile MEMOEDIT(cReadFile)

    MEMOWRIT('READ.ME',cEditFile)

    The above code is nearly as readable as the original three lines of code but will not create any variables at compile time. Try compiling this code with your CA-Clipper compiler and use the /P switch to write the pre-processed code to a .PPO file, then look at the .PPO file to see what is actually compiled.

    Use LOCALS Instead of PRIVATES

    Sometimes it is just not possible or practical to write code without using symbols, so if you find yourself in this situation, CA-Clipper provides the feature of "LOCALIZING" symbols to the code segment which is currently being executed rather than placing the symbol in the main symbol table. LOCAL symbols are effectively "overlayed" because they are treated as part of the code segment rather than given a place in the main symbol table.

    Not only does this save valuable memory but it also improves speed performance because the public symbol table does not need to be searched each time a LOCAL symbol is referenced in your code. Of course, if the symbol you are referencing is needed for the entire application or is used in a macro, then it must be declared as PRIVATE or PUBLIC. Symbols which are not declared at all are automatically assumed to be PRIVATE, so make sure you use the LOCAL declaration for all symbols in your code which you do not want to end up in the main symbol table. In the previous code example, the 5 PRIVATE memvars consume 110 bytes of memory, the single PRIVATE array consumes 22 bytes of memory, whereas 5 LOCAL declarations would consume 0 bytes of memory.

    Use STATIC functions instead of PUBLIC functions

    Every PUBLIC function and procedure name will occupy 22 bytes of the symbol table. Don't make functions and/or procedures PUBLIC unless they need to be called from anywhere within your application. STATIC procedures and functions are called only from within the source code module in which they are declared thereby eliminating the need to place the function name into the public symbol table.

    Use PSUEDO functions or CONSTANTS instead of PUBLIC functions

    A Psuedo-function is a function that does not really exist in the compiled code but exists only in your source code. Many programmers will use a large number of functions with different names even when each function may do something very similar like a conversion or a table lookup. I have seen a lot of code that looks like this:

    SetColor( blueonwhite() + "," + redongreen() + "," + black() )

    FUNCTION blueonwhite

    RETURN 'B/W'

    FUNCTION redongreen

    RETURN 'R/G'

    FUNCTION black

    RETURN 'N/N'

    Programmers will use this technique to make their code easy to read and maintain without understanding how this can bloat the size of the application. Probably the best technique to replace the above code would be to #define constants for each as follows:

    SetColor( BLUEONWHITE+ "," + REDONGREEN + "," + BLACK )

    #define BLUEONWHITE "B/W"

    #define REDONGREEN "R/G"

    #define BLACK "N/N"

    Your existing source code may have "many" references to public functions and you don't want to risk changing all the function names to constants, or maybe the functions return something a little more complex than can be handled by a simple constant. In this case, you can #translate the functions into psuedo-functions as follows:

    BEFORE:

    FUNCTION BLOBget ( nPointer, nStart, nCount )

    RETURN dbInfo( BLOB_GET, { nStart, nCount } )

    FUNCTION BLOBput ( nPointer, xBlob )

    RETURN dbInfo( BLOB_PUT, { nPointer, xBlob } )

    FUNCTION BLOBExport( nPointer, cTargetFile, lMode )

    RETURN dbInfo( BLOB_EXPORT, { nPointer, cTargetFile, lMode } )

    AFTER:

    #xTranslate BLOBget( , , ) => ;

    dbInfo( BLOBGET, { , , } )

    #xTranslate BLOBput( , ) => ;

    dbInfo( BLOBPUT, { , } )

    #xTranslate BLOBExport( , , ) => ;

    dbInfo( BLOBEXPORT, { , , } )

    In the BEFORE example above, three PUBLIC functions were created simply to provide a better way to call the same dbInfo() function, whereas in the AFTER example, no PUBLIC functions were needed to accomplish the exact same task. Not only did we save 3 symbol table entries but we also eliminated 3 LOCAL variables that get pushed onto the EVAL stack. Of course it must be remembered that since psuedo-functions don't actually exist they cannot be used in macros or index keys.

    Don't use STATICs or PRIVATEs to pass parameters

    Many CA-Clipper programmers will assign a variable as PRIVATE or STATIC so it can be accessed and changed within multiple procedures in the same source code module. Variables should be STATIC only if their value needs to be maintained throughout the program, not for the convenience of eliminating the need to pass parameters. By using the pass-by-reference symbol "@" you can change the value of LOCAL variables anywhere within your calling program as shown by the following example.

    LOCAL cName, cAddress

    MyFunction( @cName, @cAddress )

    Return( { cName, cAddress } )

    STATIC FUNCTION MyFunction ( cName, cAddress )

    cName := "CA-Clipper"

    cAddress := "New York, NY"

    Return( nil)

    The "Myth" of PUBLICs verses STATICs

    There is no memory advantage to using a STATIC variable in lieu of a PUBLIC variable. Both types of variables use up permanent space in conventional memory. A STATIC variable will use space in DGROUP, whereas a PUBLIC variable will use space in the Symbol Table. In fact, there are situations in which a good case can be made for using a PUBLIC array instead of a STATIC array. Take the example of a system-wide color system in which the colors are defined in an array. If the array is STATIC, then extracting the information from the array requires a call to a PUBLIC function which exists in the same source code module as the array definition. This would actually add more symbols to the symbol table and take more processor time than if the color array were defined as PUBLIC thereby allowing direct access to the array without the need for the public function. A STATIC array may be a wiser choice in cases where the application is a library which is incorporated into another CA-Clipper application, thereby eliminating any possibility of symbol conflicts with the application.

    Clipper References for Newbies

    For the benefit of Clipper newbies, some of the Clipper related reading material which I read include :

  • Nantucket Summer'87 Manual
  • Nantucket Summer'88 Update
  • Using Clipper (Summer'87) - Ed Tiley
  • Clipper Programming Guide (Summer'87) - Rick Spence

  • Nantucket Clipper 5.0 Manuals
  • The Unofficial Clipper 5.0 Manual - Tech Publications
  • Clipper Programming Guide (2nd Edition) - Rick Spence
  • Clipper 5.0 - A developer's Guide - Greg Lief, Joe Booth
  • CA-Clipper 5.2 Manuals

  • Clipper 5.3 - A developer's Guide - Greg Lief, Joe Booth
  • CA-Clipper 5.3 Manuals
  • 3rd party Libraries [ on 7th August, 1996]

    Here's a table of 3rd party libraries for CA-Clipper which I am aware of . If you have further information to shed on them, please e-mail me for updating purposes.

    Table of 3rd Party Libraries



    NameAuthor5.3/5.3a CompatibleCategoryWhere to Get ?Do I use it ?
    SuperLibGarry PrefontaineYes - Version 3.6General with several useful meta-functionsemail Garry Prefontaine at 72020.3370@compuserve.comYes
    FunckyDirk dLeskoYes - Version 2.5 is supposed to be compatible with CA-Clipper 5.3No meta-functions. Lots of fast low-level functionsYes
    NanforClipper CommunityNot sureLots of useful functions, come with source codesPhil Barnett's OASIS FTP Site - See under Cool Clipper SitesYes
    GrumpfishGreg LiefYes but not optimised for it.Good & useful libraryNo longer available commercially but you can try e-mailing greglief@teleport.comHaven't tried it.
    FiveWinAntonio LinaresYes - Version 1.91 but best used with 5.2eClipper for Windows Library. Used to produce 16bit Windows apps. Best used with CA-Clipper 5.2eOmicron - See unde Cool Clipper SitesYes
    Clip4WinJohn SkeltonYesOriginal Clipper for WindowsSAPCSI A PC Solutions I bought it but have yet to try it out !
    DGEcan't rememberNot sure.Use for GUIDon't knowNot anymore.
    Telepathycan't rememberNot sure.Communications libraryBought it from MicroBina Sdn Bhd, KLBought it but have not actually tried it out.
    FrankieDon't knowLIto Dizon as per George W on 4th August, 1996Mousingemail at Lito Dizon
    as per George W
    Haven't tried it.

    Useful Development & Support Tools

    In developing my clipper 5.2e applications, I have found the following to be useful : -

    Table of Useful Development & Support Tools


    Tool/UtilityCommentsWhere to get ?

    DBU.EXEIndispensable for DBF creation & for software support purposesComes with CA-Clipper

    RL.EXEUsed to create FRM & LBL filesComes with CA-Clipper

    FRM2PRG.EXEUsed to generate quick & dirty source codes from FRM files which can then be customised to your heart's delight.Phil Barnett's OASIS FTP Site - See under Cool Clipper Sites

    DATA_DOC.EXEExcellent to generate Ascii files from DBFs fro documentation purposes.Phil Barnett's OASIS FTP Site - See under Cool Clipper Sites

    INSTALL.EXESimple but yet professional looking installerPhil Barnett's OASIS FTP Site - See under Cool Clipper Sites

    NGP.EXEUsed to print formatted output with paging etc from NG files !Phil Barnett's OASIS FTP Site - See under Cool Clipper Sites

    Borland Resources WorkshopEssential for 5.2e+FiveWin application developmentPart of Clip4Win Toolkit

    PE.EXEUseful for quick & dirty text file editingcomes with CA-Clipper

    BLINKER.EXEBest linker for CA-Clipper apps. Can produce both DOS & Windows EXEs. Use Blinker 3.2 onwards to produce Windows EXE with FiveWin. Can be used to produce REAL, PROTECTED or DUAL mode EXEsI got my copy from Breakthrough Technologies (formerly Programmers Warehouse)

    Sx_SetScope() Confusion - SIXCDX v3.01.00

    >Hi Brian

    >Do you mind if I post this at Clipper...Clipper...Clipper ?

    No not at all, in retrospect to this, I have looked at documentation for
    Advantage and Comix, who both implement a Scope function, their
    documentation is as vague as the SIX documentation, but reading between
    the lines from all three products, its working as designed ... not the
    best implementation, IMHO but there again I can see the direction used and
    understand it.


    >Brian Dukes wrote:
    >>
    >> Having used SIXCDX now quite happily since version 1.5.x, through to

    >> version 3.01.00, I have developed my applications and extensively used
    >> Sx_SetScope() or SET SCOPE TO in my code.
    >>
    >> I have just found some interesting behavour with "scopes" that I
    >> wasn't aware of and that frightens me a little!
    >>
    >> OK, lets take a quick psuedo example!
    >>
    >> set tag to "name"
    >> ? sx_setscope(0) // returns NIL
    >> Sx_SetScope(0,"BRIAN")
    >> ? Sx_SetScope(0) // returns "BRIAN"
    >>
    >> set tag to "address"
    >> ? Sx_SetScope(0) // returns NIL
    >> Sx_SetScope(0,"MALVERN)
    >> ? Sx_SetScope(0) // returns "MALVERN"
    >>
    >> set tag to "name"
    >> ? Sx_SetScope(0) // returns "BRIAN"
    >> Sx_SetScope(0,"")
    >> ? Sx_SetScope(0) // returns NIL
    >>
    >> set tag to "address"
    >> ? Sx_SetScope(0) // returns "MALVERN"
    >>
    >> No where in the SIXCDX documentation does it say that the scope is
    >> localised to the current order, and swapping orders will bring into
    >> focus a different scope!
    >>
    >> Not only that but clearing the scope by issuing Sx_SetScope(0,"") and
    >> Sx_SetScope(1,"") or by SET SCOPE TO command, is only clearing the
    >> scope in the current order ... so when you believe you have cleared
    >> the scope on the work-area, and switch orders, you automagically have
    >> a scope in force again.
    >>
    >> OK, take the following code as well :-
    >>
    >> Sx_SetScope(0,"")
    >> cOrgScope := Sx_SetScope(0) // returns NIL
    >>
    >> Sx_SetScope(0,"FRED")
    >> ? Sx_SetScope(0) // retur
    >>
    >> Sx_SetScope(0,cOrgScope) // restore origi
    >> ? Sx_SetScope(0) // retur
    >>
    >> Because Sx_SetScope returns NIL if no scope is in force, cOrgScope
    >> now contains NIL ... if Sx_setscope is called with no second
    >> parameter then sx_setscope will just return the current scope setting;
    >> Obviously they are checking if the second parameter is NIL, if so just
    >> returning the value .... So a function that will save the value of
    >> scope mess around under a different scope and then restore scope to
    >> its original value, is not gonna work unless it looks summat like :-
    >>
    >> Sx_SetScope(0,if(cOrgScope == NIL,"",cOrgScope))
    >>
    >> I think whats clear from the message above, is that I had assumed that
    >> you only had ONE scope per work area, as opposed to having one scope
    >> per index order!! I can now see a lot of work writing a
    >> Sx_SetScope() replacement, which will run through the other orders and
    >> clear their scope before setting scope on the current order. And
    >> correcting the SET SCOPE TO problem in the same way; and correcting
    >> the NIL second parameter problem!!
    >>
    >> Thanks SuccessWare .... PLEASE can you either DOCUMENT this or FIX
    >> IT!!
    >>
    >> Brian.

    -----------------------------------------------------------
    Brian Dukes
    -----------------------------------------------------------

    About Blinker - 1996

    All my CA-Clipper apps are linked with Blinker 3.3 (just updated from 3.2 via the 3.3 patch available from Phil Barnett's FTP site). BTW, the latest Blinker version is 4.0.

    Why Blinker ?

    Blinker is my linker of choice as it :

    # produces both DOS & Windows EXE files
    # can produce REAL, PROTECTED or DUAL modes EXEs
    # links superfast. On this point alone, I won't consider EXOSPACE
    # overlays very efficiently REAL mode EXEs, thereby solving Memory Low problems via the usage of the MIN/MID/MAX ovrlaying link scripts
    # is very stable

    DGScan-The DGROUP Usage Scanner For Clipper by Ian Day & Dave Pearson

    By Ian Day and Dave Pearson

    Background On DGROUP

    (Portions of this section are taken, with the kind permission of Dark Black Software, from the MrDebug Norton Guide)

    DGROUP is a 64K chunk of memory that, for a Clipper program, can be broken down into five distinct sections, each serving a specific purpose. DGROUP can be easily described as a 64K block of memory that is used by Clipper as a common area of memory that Cliper and third party products can rely on to find various items of information. There are five main parts to DGROUP:

    1. The MemVar table (Dynamic)

    This is used to store Clipper STATIC variables and ITEMs (declared through the ITEM API) with their contents if the contents and variable/ITEM definition can be held within 14 bytes, otherwise the variable/ITEM definition is held along with a pointer to a Virtual Memory segment where the variable/ITEM contents are held.

    2. DS Available (Dynamic)

    This is the amount of free memory available within the DGROUP. This amount can be seen from //INFO as DS AVAIL or from the Memory/Info window. This will be reduced during the execution of the program as the Eval Stack and the Memvar table may both 'grow' into this area.

    3. Eval Stack (Dynamic)

    This is where Clipper LOCAL variables are held (if the variable definition and contents take up 14 bytes or less), otherwise a pointer is stored to a Virtual memory segment that contains the variable contents.

    4. CPU Stack (Fixed)

    The CPU stack is used to store the function return addresses each time a new function is called, as well as local 'C' variables.

    The size of the CPU stack is set when you link your program. It depends upon the linker that you are using and linker specific commands that you have in the link script that might increase or reduce the stack

    5. Fixed C and ASM Data (Fixed)

    This area is used by other third party libraries and other languages that do not use their own data segments and use the default data segment (otherwise known to us Clipperites as DGROUP) to store fixed pieces of text and global variables used by other languages

    For example, inside Clipper, the un-recoverable error messages are stored within this section of the default data segment (DGROUP).

    As you can see from the above, the DGROUP area is pretty important to the smooth running of your Clipper application, and a lack of DGROUP can cause your software to fall over with a number of internal errors.

    In an effort to make sure this does not happen you should try to reduce the impact your code has on DGROUP. Many 3rd party libraries use large ammounts of DGROUP (in my experience they can bump up the fixed C and ASM data usage by quite a bit. If you need to use a number of 3rd party libraries this can become quite a problem.

    However, given that your chances of changing the usage of 3rd party libraries are pretty slim, the only chance you have of making a difference is by improving your own code to reduce it's DGROUP usage.

    What Can Be Done?

    If you write nothing but pure Clipper code, you still have the ability to reduce your DGROUP usage. The main area you can address is your use of STATIC variables. STATIC variables are, without a doubt, a good thing, but, they come with a price.

    Unlike the other variable types, each STATIC variable requires a fixed (14 byte) entry in the the MemVar table. On the surface this may not seem like a big deal. A STATIC only needs 14 bytes in DGROUP, what does it matter? To see how this matters, lets take the GETSYS.PRG code you can find in the SOURCE\SYS directory of your copy of Clipper as an example.

    Close to the top of the source you will find the following code:


    //
    // State variables for active READ
    //
    STATIC sbFormat
    STATIC slUpdated := .F.
    STATIC slKillRead
    STATIC slBumpTop
    STATIC slBumpBot
    STATIC snLastExitState
    STATIC snLastPos
    STATIC soActiveGet
    STATIC scReadProcName
    STATIC snReadProcLine


    As you can see, there are 10 STATIC variables, each using 14 bytes in the MemVar Table. With a simple little trick we can reduce that 140 bytes of usage down to 14 bytes. Watch:


    // Hold all the statics in one static.

    Static _aSysStuff := { NIL, .F., NIL, NIL, NIL, NIL,; NIL, NIL, NIL, NIL }

    // Translated static variable names.

    #xtranslate sbFormat => _aSysStuff\[ 01 \] #xtranslate slUpdated => _aSysStuff\[ 02 \] #xtranslate slKillRead => _aSysStuff\[ 03 \] #xtranslate slBumpTop => _aSysStuff\[ 04 \] #xtranslate slBumpBot => _aSysStuff\[ 05 \] #xtranslate snLastExitState => _aSysStuff\[ 06 \] #xtranslate snLastPos => _aSysStuff\[ 07 \] #xtranslate soActiveGet => _aSysStuff\[ 08 \] #xtranslate scReadProcName => _aSysStuff\[ 09 \] #xtranslate snReadProcLine => _aSysStuff\[ 10 \]

    With that simple little trick you will have reduced the DGROUP usage from 140 bytes to just 14 bytes.

    If you have lots of code of your own that has a large number of file wide STATICs in a single file you can make quite a difference.

    If you write your own C functions, then it's a wise move to take a look at the compiler options at your disposal, as some of these can drastically reduce the impact on DGROUP.

    For example, take the following piece of code:


    #include

    CLIPPER YesNo( void ) // Return yes or no string { if ( _parl(1) ) // .T. passed to function? { _retc( "Yes" ); // Yes, so return "Yes" } else { _retc( "No" ); // No, so return "No" } }

    Simple enough, but already we've just used 7 (or 8) bytes of DGROUP without thinking! Why? you ask. Answer: It's the strings. By default, C compilers will put constants (which means strings, doubles, floats and some arrays) into DGROUP. And when I say '7 (or 8)', it's because some compilers will align data on a WORD boundary as default, and you can usually expect the DGROUP usage to be a tad more than you thought.

    You can change this by looking for a compiler option to reverse this default. For example, with the Microsoft C compilers, there is the /Gt switch and for Borland C compilers there is the -Ff switch. Given a number of 1, it will automatically put any constants larger than 1 length into a FAR segment, and out of DGROUP! This means, that no matter how much data is used by your C functions for strings and things, it won't make a difference to DGROUP.

    With assembler code, we use the same principles. Don't use _DATA, _BSS, CONST or DGROUP for data storage if you can possibly help it.

    So, if you have a module like this:


    _DATA SEGMENT WORD PUBLIC 'DATA'
    cYes DB 'Yes', 0
    cNo DB 'No', 0
    _DATA ENDS

    DGROUP GROUP _DATA

    YESNO_TEXT SEGMENT WORD PUBLIC 'CODE'

    ASSUME cs:YESNO_TEXT, ds:DGROUP

    YESNO PROC FAR PUSH bp MOV bp, sp

    MOV ax, 1 PUSH ax CALL __parl ADD sp, 2

    OR ax, ax JZ ZeroSoItsFalse

    MOV ax, OFFSET cYes JMP SHORT ReturnString

    ZeroSoItsFalse: MOV ax, OFFSET cNo

    ReturnString: PUSH ax PUSH ds CALL __retc ADD sp, 4

    POP bp RETF YESNO ENDP

    YESNO_TEXT ENDS END

    You've again used 7 (or 8) bytes of DGROUP without thinking, so in this case you would have to alter the segments and anything that used the data in them so that DGROUP can once again be saved:


    YESNO_DATA SEGMENT WORD PUBLIC 'FAR_DATA'
    cYes DB 'Yes', 0
    cNo DB 'No', 0
    YESNO_DATA ENDS

    YESNO_TEXT SEGMENT WORD PUBLIC 'CODE' ASSUME cs:YESNO_TEXT, ds:NOTHING

    YESNO PROC FAR PUSH bp MOV bp, sp

    MOV ax, 1 PUSH ax CALL __parl ADD sp, 2

    OR ax, ax JZ ZeroSoItsFalse

    MOV ax, OFFSET cYes JMP SHORT ReturnString

    ZeroSoItsFalse: MOV ax, OFFSET cNo

    ReturnString: PUSH ax PUSH YESNO_DATA CALL __retc ADD sp, 4

    POP bp RETF YESNO ENDP

    YESNO_TEXT ENDS END

    As you can see, if your application is tight on DGROUP, with the source to hand and a little bit of work you can free up some of that usage. Lets just hope you have the source code for the worst offending code in your application.

    Using DGSCAN To Find DGROUP Usage

    Back when I first became aware of this "problem" I started to work on my own library code and managed to reduce some of the DGROUP usage. However, working through all that code was getting to be pretty boring. That's when I decided to write DGSCAN. What I wanted was a tool that could scan OBJ and LIB files and find anything that might be taking up precious DGROUP space.

    If you want to get and try out DGSCAN then pop over to Hagbard's World and grab a copy. Got it? Good.

    Ok, lets take a simple example of using DGSCAN. Look at the following code:

    Static xVar1
    Static xVar2
    Static xVar3
    Static xVar4

    Function Main()

    ? "I'm eating up DGROUP"

    Return( NIL )

    Compile it into an OBJ and then run DGSCAN over it:

    F:\DGTEST>dgscan foo.obj

    DgScan v3.00 - DGROUP Usage Scanner By Dave Pearson

    File-------- Module--------------------------- Segment----------- Bytes----- FOO.OBJ FOO STATICS$ 56 FOO.OBJ *** Total *** 56

    As you can see, DGSCAN has detected 56 bytes of possible DGROUP usage. This is because we have 4 STATIC variables, each with a 14 byte impact. If you applied the "array trick" we spoke about earlier you would see the usage reduced to 14 bytes.

    To generate a report for all your OBJ files just do:

    F:\DGTEST>dgscan *.obj


    It's as simple as that, and the same goes for LIB files.

    I won't say much more about DGSCAN, everything you need to know is covered by the file DGSCAN.TXT found in the DGSCAN archive. However, if you do have problems with the utility please feel free to mail me and I'll try to help you out.

    What is dgscan ?

    [3rd Sept 1996]

    Since Oc'95, I have noticed occasional postings on comp.lang.clipper pertaining to 66x runtime internal errors related to over-usage of the limited DGroup memory used by CA-Clipper. So what's the solution. In the course of communicating with Dave Pearson, one of my nominated personalities on comp.lang.clipper, I noticed that his e-mail signature referred to something that he called dgscan. Curious as ever, I hassled him for more information and here's his reply :

    What is dgscan - DGROUP scanner for Clipper ?

    Well, as you probably know the DGROUP area of a Clipper program is pretty important to it's health. Abuse of the above can lead to plenty of problems, mostly ending up with one of the 66x internal errors.

    Clipper code and C/ASM code can eat away at DGROUP quite easily, so I wrote DGScan to scan OBJ and LIB files and track down possible dgroup usage. With this utility I've managed to shave off quite a bit of DGROUP usage in my own LIBS.

    To see exactly what it does download it from my pages and have a play. You might be suprised at how much possible DGROUP usage you can find and remove. I tend to use a number of tricks in my own code. For example, if you have a number of static variables in a PRG, reduce them to a single array and #xtranslate the variable names, for example, where you had:

    Static lVar := .F.

    Static nVar := 0

    Static cVar := ""

    Static dVar := ctod( "" )

    you could replace this with:

    Static aStatics := { .F., 0, "", ctod( "" )

    #xtranslate lVar => aStatics\[ 1 \]

    #xtranslate nVar => aStatics\[ 2 \]

    #xtranslate cVar => aStatics\[ 3 \]

    #xtranslate dVar => aStatics\[ 4 \]

    The first example code has a possible impact of 14 * 4 bytes, while the second has only a 14 byte possible impact.

    The other usage to look out for is things like static text in C and ASM code. For example, with Borland C++ I tend to add "-Ff=0" as one of the switches to the command line. This ensures that any static text is placed in (I think) far data rather than in DGROUP. This reduces the overhead on DGROUP.

    Want to know more about dgscan Version 3.00 by Dave Pearson ?

    What it is

    DGScan is a simple little command line utility that will scan your Clipper 5.x oriented OBJ and LIB files and produce a report of their usage of Clipper's DGROUP.

    DGScan will work with and has been tested on C, ASM and Clipper OBJ and LIB files.

    Please also note that DGScan is free software, protected by the GPL. Please read the file COPYING for full details.

    What it isn't

    DGScan can't currently tell you who is using what DGROUP in your application. All it can do is detect possible DGROUP impact in any OBJ or LIB file. At some point in the future I aim to either expand DGScan or develop a new utility that will scan your application and tell you exactly who is using what parts of DGROUP.

    For the moment DGScan is a tool to help you work out what could be using DGROUP. When scanning 3rd party library files keep in mind that you probably don't make use of all the functions so you probably don't link in all the modules. On the other hand it's not easy to know what modules the library file uses internaly.

    How to use it

    The syntax is as follows:

    DGScan [] | @ []

    where is the name of a single OBJ or LIB file or a wildcard file spec for a number of OBJ or LIB files. Example usage:

    DGScan main.obj // Scan a single OBJ file.

    DGScan *.obj // Scan all OBJ files.

    DGScan clipper.lib // Scan a library file.

    DGScan *.lib // Scan all library files.

    etc.

    As an alternative you can use a "script" file. This file should contain the names of files that you want to scan, each file on it's own line. The name of the file should start on the first column, any lines that start with either a space or a ';' are considered to be comments. Blank lines are allowed.

    Example usage of a script file is:

    DGScan @CCode.Lst

    The switches are as follows:

    /S - Ignore Clipper static variables. If used this switch tells DGScan not to include Clipper static variables in the scan.

    /T - Totals only. If used this switch tells DGScan to only display the total usage.

    /Q - Quiet. If used this switch stops DGScan from showing it's "banner".

    All of the above switches can also be placed inside an environment variable called DGScan. So, if you want DGScan to ignore Clipper static variables and only display totals by default you would:

    Set DGScan=/s/t

    Format of output

    DGScan writes a simple report to the screen, this can be redirected to a file using standard DOS redirection. The format of the report is:

    File-------- Module------------------------ Segment-------- Bytes-----

    where: is the name of the OBJ or LIB file.

    is the name of the module in the OBJ or LIB file.

    is the name of the segment that us using DGROUP.

    is the number of bytes of DGROUP in use.

    An example report is:

    File-------- Module------------------------ Segment-------- Bytes-----

    FLOPNAME.OBJ flopname.c _DATA 4

    FLOPNAME.OBJ *** Total *** 4

    If more than one file is scanned then a grand total will also be displayed.

    What to look for

    The first and most obvious thing to look for is the segment name STATICS$ for Clipper compiled code. If the byte figure is high you may want to consider reducing the number of statics in a file. The number of bytes is calculated based on the fact that a single Clipper static variable will have a 14 byte impact on DGROUP.

    If you have, for example, ten file wide static variables in a PRG file you may consider storing the ten items in an array held in a single static. With such an example the DGROUP impact would be reduced from 140 bytes to just 14 bytes.

    With C code you will probably know yourself what the "problem" areas are. Obvious things to watch out for are hard coded strings in a C function, for example:

    _retc( "" );

    will have a one byte impact on DGROUP (the segment will probably show up as _DATA), you could get rid of this with a simple:

    char *p = { 0 };

    _retc( p );

    Other things to look out for are static variables (the segment will probably be _BSS), but I would assume that you have placed them there for a reason.

    To a large extent when it comes to C and ASM code you are kind of on your own because the segment names etc. may differ from compiler to compiler or you mave have given them your own names.

    ErrorLevels

    Just in case you ever wanted to have DGROUP detection in your Compile batch file/make file DGScan will return an ErrorLevel of 1 if any DGROUP impact is found in a scan and 0 if none is found.

    I doubt that this will be of any use but its there if you need it.

    OS/2 Support

    Used to exist, but no longer. Since I added more memory to my machine OS/2 has refused to play ball. Dos, Windows, Win95 and Linux are all happy, only OS/2 won't play. :-(

    Perhaps Merlin will be better. :-)

    If you still want to run under OS/2, you have the source.

    The History

    Release Date Reason

    1.00.0 23/11/94 First version, release to DBSL for testing. Had no library file support and had trouble with unknown record IDs.

    1.00.1 24/11/94 Added support for library files by ignoring unknown record IDs. Changed the memory model to large. Without this the utility would die when reading large library files. Added support for Clipper Static variables. Re-wrote the output so that it is now a proper report of sorts.

    1.00.2 25/11/94 Added code to ignore _SYMP segment entries. Because of this DGScan will now show you DGROUP usage that you can affect in your own code (you can do nothing about the usage of the _SYMP segment). Changed the way we calculate the impact of C and ASM code. We can now detect static variables in C and ASM files whereas before they were not included in the calculation.

    1.01.0 02/12/94 Added a verbose mode switch to the command line that causes all segments to be displayed in the report.

    1.02.0 05/12/94 Fixed a stupid bug that caused DGScan to ignore DGROUP usage from time to time. This was a side effect of the Verbose switch of all things! Thanks for finding that one Ian.

    1.03.0 06/12/94 Fixed a stupid memory allocation bug that caused strange results on Ian Day's machine. Also added errorlevel support. If DGROUP usage is found in a scan then an errorlevel of 1 is returned, otherwise an errorlevel of 0 is returned, Also added support for "Script" files.

    1.04.0 08/12/94 Fixed a strange bug found by Ian Day. Also removed the verbose switch because of incorrect user expectations. There was little need for it in the first place.

    1.05.0 13/12/94 Far better library scanning. This should have correctly fixed a couple of the previous bugs found by Ian and should also make the scanning of some library files a bit faster.

    1.06.0 15/12/94 Long module and segment names will no-longer screw up the format of the report.

    1.07.0 23/12/94 Added the /S and /T command line switches. If the filename on the command line has no extension DGScan will now look for .OBJ then .LIB.

    1.08.0 28/12/94 Added the /Q switch. Added support for switches in an environment variable called DGScan. Fixed another silly bug that would cause DGScan to miss some DGROUP usage. Included BLIDGRP.

    2.00.0 01/03/95 Changed into Dos and OS/2 versions. Also changed the name of the .EXE 'cos I got fed up with typing such a long name. ;-)

    2.00.1 22/03/95 Got rid of DGSCAN2.EXE. DGSCAN.EXE is now a bound executable. Also dropped support for BLIDGRP, it was a pointless idea in the first place.

    3.00.0 18/07/96 Finally got round to sorting things out so that I can release the source code. DgScan is now placed under the GPL.

    Feedback

    If you have any comments or problems with DGScan you may mail me at davep@hagbard.demon.co.uk. Also, you can allways find the latest version of this utility at:

    http://www.acemake.com/hagbard

    Any feedback would be great so just fire away.....

    Many Thanx

    Many thanx must go to Ian Day who showed me how to calculate the number of Clipper static variables from information found in a Clipper OBJ file and also managed to find that one extra library that would break the scanner each time I was happy that it was working fine. Thanx also to Darren Lancaster who let me pester Ian when he had better things to be doing with his time and Brian Dukes and Stu Beesley for testing this utility.

    Thanx must also go to Kip Davidson and Dave Cortesi, two guys I've never met or spoken to but who wrote a utility called READOBJ, the code for this utility helped me understand the format of OBJ files.

    DavePearson

    By the way, I am impressed with Dave's creation ! Are you ? Click here to download this excellent tool.

    Welcome to Clipper... Clipper... Clipper


    In 1997, then using Delphi 3, I had already created 32-bits Windows applications for HRIS, ERP and CRM. In 2007, using Ruby on Rails, an AJAX powered CRM site running on Apache & MySQL was created and I am now using Visual Studio .Net 2008 to create web-based projects and Delphi 7 for Win32 applications using SQL2005 & DBFCDX.

    So, why then am I reviving the Original Clipper... Clipper... Clipper via a Blog as CA-Clipper is a programming language for the DOS world ? Believe it or not, there are still some clients using my mission-critical CA-Clipper applications for DOS installed in the late 80's and up to the mid 90's. This is testimony to CA-Clipper's robustness as a language :-)

    With the widespread introduction of Windows 7 64-bits as the standard O/S for new Windows based PCs & Notebooks, CA-Clipper EXE simply will not work and it has become imperative for Clipper programmers to migrate immediately to Harbour to build 32/64 bits EXEs

    Since 28th January 2009, this blog has been read by 134,389 (10/3/11 - 39,277) unique visitors (of which 45,151 (10/3/11 - 13,929) are returning visitors) from 103 countries and 1,574 cities & towns in Europe (37; 764 cities), North America (3; 373 cities) , Central America & Caribeans (6; 13 cities), South America(10; 226 cities), Africa & Middle-East (12; 44 cities) , Asia-Pacific (21; 175 cities). So, obviously Clipper is Alive & Well : -)


    TIA & Enjoy ! (10th October 2012, 11:05; 13th November 2015)


    Original Welcome Page for Clipper... Clipper... Clipper

    This is the original Welcome Page for Clipper... Clipper... Clipper, which I am republishing for historical and sentimental reasons. The only changes that I have made was to fix all the broken links. BTW, the counter from counter.digits.com is still working :-)

    Welcome to Chee Chong Hwa's Malaysian WWW web site which is dedicated to Clipperheads throughout the world.

    This site started out as a teeny-weeny section of Who the heck is Chee Chong Hwa ? and has graduated into a full blown web site of more than 140 pages (actually hundreds of A4 size pages) ! This is due to its growing popularity and tremendous encouragements from visiting Clipperheads from 100 countries worldwide, from North America, Central America, Caribbean, South America, Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Thanx Clipperheads, you all made this happen !


    What is Clipper ?

    You may ask, what is this Clipper stuff ? Could Clipper be something to do with sailing as it is the name of a very fast sailing American ship in the 19th century ?

    Well, Clipper or to be precise, CA-Clipper is the premier PC-Software development tool for DOS. It was first developed by Nantucket Corporation initially as a compiler for dBase3+ programs. Since then, CA-Clipper has evolved away from its x-base roots with the introduction of lexical scoping & pre-defined objects like TBrowse. As at today, the most stable version ofClipper is 5.2e while the latest version, 5.3a was introduced on 21 May 1996.

    As at 11th November, 1996, an unofficial 5.3a fixes file was made available by Jo French. See the About CA-Clipper 5.3a section for more details. BTW, Jo French uploaded the revised 5.3a fixes file on 20th November, 1996.

    Latest News

    The latest news is that CA has finally released the long-awaited 5.3b patch on 21 May, 1997.

    For 5.3b users, you must a take a look at Jo French's comments on unfixed bugs in 5.3b.

    BTW, have you used Click ? If you're a serious Clipperprogrammer and need an excellent code formatter, Click is a natural choice. How to get it ? Simple, access Phil Barnett's site via my Cool Clipper Sites.

    32-bits Clipper for Windows ?

    Have you tried Xbase ++ ? Well, I have and compared to Delphi (my current Windows programming tool of choice), I'm still sticking to Delphi.

    Anyway, you should visit the Alaska Home Page. Give it a chance and then draw your own conclusions !.

    The Harbour Project

    Is this the future of Xbase ? Take a look at at the Harbour Project

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    If you like or dislike what you see on this website, please drop me a line by clicking the email button at the bottom of this page or better still, by filling out the form in my guest book. If you are not sure what to write,click here to take a look at what other Clipperheads have to say.