17/10/21 23:07 What is Clipper ? | Viva Clipper !

Viva Clipper !

Notes of a Clipper Language Student

What is Clipper ?

Posted on October 26, 2011 by vivaclipper

As a computer software term, the word “Clipper” has two meaning :

1- A programming language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language)

2- A compiler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiler)

As a computer  programming language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language)  that is

used to build  software programs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_program)  that originally
operated primarily under  DOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS). Although it is a powerful general-
purpose programming language, it was primarily used to construct   database
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database)/business programs.

Clipper was originally released in 1985 as a compiler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiler) for dBASE

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBASE)  III, a very popular database language at the time.  Compiling
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiling)  dBASE code changes it from interpreted code, which must
be  interpreted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpreter_(computing))  every time each line of code is
executed, to  p-code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-code_machine), which uses a  Virtual Machine
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Machine)  to process the compiled p-code. p-code is considerably
faster, but still not as fast as the  machine code
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_language)  generated by native compilers. As a technical
marketing ploy, the p-code was wrapped into object code (linkable .obj files) which gave the impression
that it was compiled to native code. Clipper was created by  Nantucket Corporation
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nantucket_Corporation&action=edit&redlink=1)  led by
Barry ReBell (political) and Brian Russell (technical), and later sold to  Computer Associates
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Associates).  GrafX Software
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=GrafX_Software&action=edit&redlink=1)  licensed CA-
Clipper in 2002 from CA for ongoing marketing and distribution.

As the product matured, it remained a DOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS) tool for many years, but
added elements of the  C programming language
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language))  and  Pascal programming language
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_programming_language), as well as  OOP
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming), and the code-block  data-type
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(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datatype)  (hybridizing the concepts of dBase  macros

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_(computer_science)#Macro_languages), or  string
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_(computer_science))-evaluation, and  function pointers
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_pointer)), to become far more powerful than the original.
Nantucket’s Aspen project later matured into the  Windows
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows)  native-code  Visual Objects
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Objects) compiler.

After “swallow” Nantucket at 1992, CA published a few releases of Clipper Compiler, lastly 5.3a at  May
20, 1997. But most of Clipper programmer uses preferably 5.2e – released February 7, 1995.

Although remained a DOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS) as the compiler, Clipper continues to live

as the programming language.

The Clipper language is being actively implemented and extended by multiple organizations/vendors,
like xBase ++ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBase%2B%2B)  from Alaska Software and  FlagShip
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagship_compiler), as well as free (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software)
(GPL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License)-licensed) projects like  Harbour
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_(software)) and xHarbour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHarbour).

Many of the current implementations are portable (DOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS),  Windows

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows),  Linux (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux)  (32-
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32-bit)  and  64-bit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit)),  Unix
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix)  (32- and 64-bit), and  Mac OS X
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X)), supporting many language extensions[1]
(http://www.xharbour.org/index.asp?page=product/extensions), and have greatly extended  runtime
libraries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runtime_library), as well as various Replaceable Database Drivers
(RDD) supporting many popular database formats, like  DBF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBASE),
DBTNTX, DBFCDX (FoxPro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_FoxPro), Apollo and Comix), MachSix
(SIx Driver and Apollo),  SQL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL), and more. These newer
implementations all strive for full compatibility with the standard  dBase
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBase)/xBase (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBase)  syntax, while also
offering OOP approaches and target-based syntax such as SQLExecute().

Version history

The various versions of Clipper compiler were:

From Nantucket Corporation; the “seasonal versions”, billed as “dBase

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBase) compilers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilers)”

Nantucket Clipper Winter’84 – released May 25, 1985

Nantucket Clipper Summer’85 – released 1985
Nantucket Clipper Winter’85 – released January 29, 1986
Nantucket Clipper Autumn’86 – released October 31, 1986
Nantucket Clipper Summer’87 – released December 21, 1987
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From Nantucket Corporation; Clipper 5

Nantucket Clipper 5.00 – released 1990

Nantucket Clipper 5.01 – released April 15, 1991
Nantucket Clipper 5.01 Rev.129 – released March 31, 1992

and from Computer Associates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Associates); CA-Clipper 5

CA Clipper 5.01a –
CA Clipper 5.20 – released February 15, 1993
CA-Clipper 5.2a – released March 15, 1993
CA Clipper 5.2b – released June 25, 1993
CA-Clipper 5.2c – released August 6, 1993
CA Clipper 5.2d – released March 25, 1994
CA-Clipper 5.2e – released February 7, 1995
CA Clipper 5.30 – released June 26, 1995
CA Clipper 5.3a – released May 20, 1996
CA Clipper 5.3b – released May 20, 1997

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: This post is based upon mainly a Wikipedia article :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_(programming_language)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_(programming_language))

This entry was posted in About Clipper and tagged Alaska Software, Apollo, Apollo and Comix, Aspen
project, C programming language, Clipper, code-block, compiler, compiling, Computer Associates, Data
Type, database, database formats, dBase compiler, dBASE III, dBase/xBase syntax, DBF()*, DBFCDX,
DBTNTX, DOS, FlagShip, FoxPro, free(GPL-licensed), function pointers, GrafX Software, Harbour,
interpreted, interpreter, machine code, MachSix, macros, Nantucket, Nantucket Corporation, OOP, p-
code, Pascal programming language, programming language, RDD, Replaceable Database Drivers,
runtime libraries, SIx Driver, software programs, SQL, SQLExecute(), string-evaluation, target-based
syntax, Virtual Machine, Visual Object, Xbase++, xHarbour. Bookmark the permalink.
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