the first step in clipper

[yan987]

I am a new programmer. In may latest company, they use the clipper for their system. As a new graduate, i'm rather blur about clipper because it's a old one language of programming. In my study, i more learnt about visual basic, c etc but not clipper. So can anybody teach me how to use clipper at the first step.

Thanks.

yan987

 

[GriffMG]

Yan,

Where do you start!

Yes Clipper is very different to VB and C in the 'visual' sense - but has a lot of common heritage in that both VB and Clipper were actually written in C... dull sorry.

Right: on to 'Beginning Clipper'

Step one, overwiew:

Clipper programs are written with a simple text editor (I still use QEdit from many many years ago) all the code is held in files with a .prg extension.

Once written they are compiled into object modules (files ending .obj) using the compiler (Clipper.exe - which is usually in a folder called BIN).

These object files are then linked with libraries of prewritten code (files ending .lib) to create executable programs. This is done using a linker (Plink86 or Blinker normally).

If I telling you stuff you already know - let me know.


About the simplest program in most languages is 'hello world':

Create a folder for your project code - I usually have a DEV folder off the root of a drive and create a subfolder for each project. Within that folder create a new one called OBJ into which the compiled code can go.

Use your editor to create a file called MyProg.prg in your DEV folder:

? "Hello World from Clipper"

Compile it with clipper (in the examples below, replace 'c:\lang\cl50\' with the path to your compiler):

c:\lang\cl50\bin\clipper MyProg -oOBJ\MyProg.obj

Link it (this time with Blinker)

c:\lang\cl50\bin\Blinker FI obj\MyProg LI c:\lang\cl50\lib\clipper,c:\lang\cl50\lib\extend,c:\lang\cl50\lib\terminal,c:\lang\cl50\lib\dbfntx

and you should get an executable file called MyProg.exe.

If you run this, you should see:

Hello World from Clipper!

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

 

[innovapost1]

Yan,

You can try getting a copy of "Clipper 5.2 - A Developer's Guide" by Booth, Lief, and Yellick. It is published by M&T Books. If it is still in print, it is pretty comprehensive and fairly helpful.

Ian
Innovapost Inc.

 

[merlin511]

Dont stick with clipper langage too long. You will end up like this &^%*% langage, obsolete.

 

[Michael42]

>> Dont stick with clipper langage too long. You will end up like this &^%*% langage, obsolete.

Are not xBase++ and xHarbour modern alternatives?







Thanks,

Michael42

 

[wildcard]

There is a book that was very good for beginners called
'Using Clipper' written by W. Edward Tiley.
You can have my copy (if we negotiate a package deal).

Clipper was for DOS and no-one wants DOS packages any more.
It is time to move on and to move your clients
to a Windows environment (because Microsoft can not be
trusted to provide DOS support from within Windows for
much longer - the rogues!!)

I have migrated to XBASE++ and easily converted my
old Clipper code (for those clients who were prepared to
pay me for the work).

The only reason I still use Clipper is because some of my clients are too miserly to pay for conversion to XBASE++
(for robust 32bit Windows GUI and OOP applications).
They instead still have to pay me to create a suitable
DOS environment within whatever new version of
Windows they are running. This is false economy on their
part, because each time I 'tweak' a computer it costs
them $US60, when a total conversion from CLipper to XBASE
would have cost them only $US300 to $500 (depending on the
application) ONCE only with no ongoing costs. They end up
paying more in the long run! Cheapskates!

Hope this helps,
Jim Wild
T/A Wildcard Systems
New Zealand
<jwild@xtra.co.nz>