CCH: on 22 February 2008, Pritpal Bedi, Harbour Developer posted an interesting entry in our Guest Book, which amongst other things clearly rebutted Xbase++ CTO, Steffen's assertion on 21 February 2009 that "As of today there is still no tool available in the market which provides that clean and easy to use way of multithreading"
He also documented his journey from CA-Clipper, CA-Visual Objects, Xbase++, xHarbour and finally to the Harbour Project.
Pritpal Bedi, 22nd February 2009
This is not true. Harbour is much more robust. But mind it, Xbase++ provided it in 1998 whereas Harbour implemented it in 2008, a generation-gap.
I must admit that at present Harbour ( in its core ) lacks a GUI component, a must for modern day requirements. To achieve this goal I have initiated development of WVG*Parts along the lines of Xbase++ Xbp*Parts, which by now, is shaping up well. It follows the Xbase++ class modal exactly it is documented. By now a simple Xbase++ application can be ported to Harbour with restricted GUI components, AS IS. Harbour may have a decent GUI in near future, who knows...
To sum-up I must say that the language "CLIPPER" we all loved most, we all earned our bread and butter for decaded, we all sweared-by, is VERY MUCH ALIVE ...
Regards
Pritpal Bedi
a student of software analysis & design
Hello Chee
Nice to see such an informative site to have upto-date information about trends and developments centering around language called "CLIPPER".
Developing mini-erp solutions for trade and indistry in general and for specific verticals, in Clipper, for over a decade, I recently have discontinued support for Clipper compilations for ever. Today all my applications are compiled with Harbour ( also with xHarbour for some specific purposes ) with a unique look and feel simulating Windows GUI.
In late 90s the demand for a visual uplift was more an more coming in, Visual Object caught my attention and I tried my hands onto that. Alas! I failed miserably. Visual Obects was enforcing a new way of programming concept difficult to be accepted by one who has had invested a great amount of time and money on developing procedural code. More so, the procedural code was delivering what was expected. So I gave up after few months of frusration.
Then came Xbase++, probably in 1998, and then I was filled with joy that this is exactly I wanted. Straight forward I subscribed to it, and continue to subscibe till date, though do not plan in the future. After few months I could convert my applications running on Xbase++. I was amused by the multi-threading modal and its capabilities to mix GUI and CUI elements on one screen. It paved the way for Clipper code to be migrated to Windows world. I was/is a dire fan of its XbpParts* class modal which implemented a standard way of objecthirarchy and parameters. I also put my applications in production sites but due to many technical difficulties I had to withdraw them and reinstalled Clipper compilations. I agree that those were the days when Xbase++ was evolving. I could hae concentrated on Xbase++ IF I could not came face-to-face with xHarbour...
My first attempts with xHarbour were so rewarding that I could develop VOUCH32 library which could be used with Xbase++, xHarbour, Clipper ( not Harbour ). It proved to be very useful addon atleast for Clipper applns ( download statistics suggest that ). A journey started to port 16 bit code to 32 bits which was accomplished with little effort. But still everything was under debugging in the labs. An awesome contribution from Peter Rees ( GTWVT ) in Dec 2002 triggered my quest to provide Windows look and feel to my CUI applns. I could develop WVTGUI which gave my applns a new lease of life. I posted new technology to my clients by end 2003 which received a wide acclaim.
The journey continued. Though I could simulate Windows look and feel, but still I heavily missed multi-threading and multiple Windows support of Xbase++. Something I missed all those years.
In 2007 I turned to Harbour. Ported all what I had contibuted to xHarbour and recompiled my applns. There I floated ideas of Multi-Threading and Multi-Windows which got momentum as I showed to the group its real benefits. Przemyslaw Czerpak, this great programmer, took to this challenge and introduced both concepts in a superb manner. I insisted on Xbase++ modal of Multi-threading minus its glitches which were taken care of in proper perspective. And the result is a robust MT modal which also implements Xbase++ functions and objects.
Recently I posted all my applications in production with Multi-theading and Multi-Windows, with a unique Windows look and feel and functionality, the source base being the same I used to compile with CLIPPER, just with addition ( not changes ) of few lines of code. CLIPPER is ALIVE as ever...
As Harbour and xHarbour are binary compitble projects, every development can be shared by both projects.
Somewhere on this blog I have read Steffens quote ;
"As of today there is still no tool available in the market which provides that clean and easy to use way of multithreading."
Nice to see such an informative site to have upto-date information about trends and developments centering around language called "CLIPPER".
Developing mini-erp solutions for trade and indistry in general and for specific verticals, in Clipper, for over a decade, I recently have discontinued support for Clipper compilations for ever. Today all my applications are compiled with Harbour ( also with xHarbour for some specific purposes ) with a unique look and feel simulating Windows GUI.
In late 90s the demand for a visual uplift was more an more coming in, Visual Object caught my attention and I tried my hands onto that. Alas! I failed miserably. Visual Obects was enforcing a new way of programming concept difficult to be accepted by one who has had invested a great amount of time and money on developing procedural code. More so, the procedural code was delivering what was expected. So I gave up after few months of frusration.
Then came Xbase++, probably in 1998, and then I was filled with joy that this is exactly I wanted. Straight forward I subscribed to it, and continue to subscibe till date, though do not plan in the future. After few months I could convert my applications running on Xbase++. I was amused by the multi-threading modal and its capabilities to mix GUI and CUI elements on one screen. It paved the way for Clipper code to be migrated to Windows world. I was/is a dire fan of its XbpParts* class modal which implemented a standard way of objecthirarchy and parameters. I also put my applications in production sites but due to many technical difficulties I had to withdraw them and reinstalled Clipper compilations. I agree that those were the days when Xbase++ was evolving. I could hae concentrated on Xbase++ IF I could not came face-to-face with xHarbour...
My first attempts with xHarbour were so rewarding that I could develop VOUCH32 library which could be used with Xbase++, xHarbour, Clipper ( not Harbour ). It proved to be very useful addon atleast for Clipper applns ( download statistics suggest that ). A journey started to port 16 bit code to 32 bits which was accomplished with little effort. But still everything was under debugging in the labs. An awesome contribution from Peter Rees ( GTWVT ) in Dec 2002 triggered my quest to provide Windows look and feel to my CUI applns. I could develop WVTGUI which gave my applns a new lease of life. I posted new technology to my clients by end 2003 which received a wide acclaim.
The journey continued. Though I could simulate Windows look and feel, but still I heavily missed multi-threading and multiple Windows support of Xbase++. Something I missed all those years.
In 2007 I turned to Harbour. Ported all what I had contibuted to xHarbour and recompiled my applns. There I floated ideas of Multi-Threading and Multi-Windows which got momentum as I showed to the group its real benefits. Przemyslaw Czerpak, this great programmer, took to this challenge and introduced both concepts in a superb manner. I insisted on Xbase++ modal of Multi-threading minus its glitches which were taken care of in proper perspective. And the result is a robust MT modal which also implements Xbase++ functions and objects.
Recently I posted all my applications in production with Multi-theading and Multi-Windows, with a unique Windows look and feel and functionality, the source base being the same I used to compile with CLIPPER, just with addition ( not changes ) of few lines of code. CLIPPER is ALIVE as ever...
As Harbour and xHarbour are binary compitble projects, every development can be shared by both projects.
Somewhere on this blog I have read Steffens quote ;
"As of today there is still no tool available in the market which provides that clean and easy to use way of multithreading."
This is not true. Harbour is much more robust. But mind it, Xbase++ provided it in 1998 whereas Harbour implemented it in 2008, a generation-gap.
I must admit that at present Harbour ( in its core ) lacks a GUI component, a must for modern day requirements. To achieve this goal I have initiated development of WVG*Parts along the lines of Xbase++ Xbp*Parts, which by now, is shaping up well. It follows the Xbase++ class modal exactly it is documented. By now a simple Xbase++ application can be ported to Harbour with restricted GUI components, AS IS. Harbour may have a decent GUI in near future, who knows...
To sum-up I must say that the language "CLIPPER" we all loved most, we all earned our bread and butter for decaded, we all sweared-by, is VERY MUCH ALIVE ...
Regards
Pritpal Bedi
a student of software analysis & design
Born 04 June 1956 at a small town Karnal, a part of the then Punjab province
of the Sovereign Republic of India, attracted to software development only in
1989 at the age of 33 years. Authored VOUCH, the software grows with you,
a mini ERP solution based on Indian way of business protocols. Attracted to
xHarbour in 2002 and soon contributed to the Clipper community, Vouch32.lib.
Also he contributed to the open-source project xHarbour whatever small
he could do, major contribution being WVTGUI, a library to give a look and
feel of Windows application to a character based console application. This
he could do on the top of GTWVT, a contribution by Peter Rees.
And now, he presents Vouch32 ActiveX Server raising the barrier of languages
and version control. A Com Object completely written in xHarbour and
compiled with xHarbour.com distribution.
Author is a Master degree holder in Commerce. Has served the banking industry,
has run a medium-scale retail business, and has achieved a little in
software development.
of the Sovereign Republic of India, attracted to software development only in
1989 at the age of 33 years. Authored VOUCH, the software grows with you,
a mini ERP solution based on Indian way of business protocols. Attracted to
xHarbour in 2002 and soon contributed to the Clipper community, Vouch32.lib.
Also he contributed to the open-source project xHarbour whatever small
he could do, major contribution being WVTGUI, a library to give a look and
feel of Windows application to a character based console application. This
he could do on the top of GTWVT, a contribution by Peter Rees.
And now, he presents Vouch32 ActiveX Server raising the barrier of languages
and version control. A Com Object completely written in xHarbour and
compiled with xHarbour.com distribution.
Author is a Master degree holder in Commerce. Has served the banking industry,
has run a medium-scale retail business, and has achieved a little in
software development.
No comments:
Post a Comment