What is the best way to maintain Clipper 5.3 code?

Question

Are there any successor products in DOS, Windows, or Linux?

Answer 1

There are quite a few Clipper compilers: Harbor , CLIP, and xHarbor , to name a few.

Answer 2

Sure, the Harbor Way. Do not waste time on projects abandoned as CLIP or xHarbor.

Answer 3

The harbor is compatible with 99.99%. You can also call to win DLLs easily. I support this way of adding new features when writing new DLLs.

Answer 4

I used CLIP on Linux ... worked amazingly. It has many goodies that you will not find in the standard DOS CA-Clipper.

Answer 5

FlagShip is a well-maintained, stable Clipper compiler that works on all Unix variants. Some major US retailers still use Clipper-based point-of-sale systems, which have been ported to FlagShip on Linux. It has some good object-oriented extensions and a really easy way to peek into embedded C code where necessary.

Answer 6

Do not! This is the best way! Switch to a modern language (C #, VB.Net, Java, OO Cobol (!), Python or Ruby).

I like C # and OO Cobol better (www.alchemysolutions.com, www.Veryant.com, www.microfocus.com, www.legacyj.com, www.cobol-it.com, www.ibm.com/cobol).

Answer 7

xHabour, I found it will sometimes work on printers, and sometimes not. This is rather aggravating the situation. Therefore, I no longer use it.

I have a niche that supports and migrates old Clipper and Foxpro applications. The biggest problem, especially with Clipper, is third-party libraries. Such code will not compile in Windows Clipper compilers, and it is not usual for a Clipper application to use several such libraries. Sometimes the code was ported to Windows, but often it wasn’t.

By the way, I am not surprised when another large corporation calls, saying that they have a mission-critical application that has been running since 1992 in Clipper or FoxDOS, and I can transfer it to Windows. Clipper is similar to COBOL.

Answer 8

CA Visual Objects (VO) is the official successor, but don't expect to just recompile the Clipper 5.3 application into VO. All screen interface code will need to be rewritten for the new user interface.

Answer 9

I'm still programming Clipper 5.3. This is by no means a dead language, and there is a vibrant user community in the news: comp.lang.clipper (also available through Google Groups ). If you go to xHarbor there is a strong news presence: comp.lang.xharbour ( ditto )

Answer 10

Don't even think about using FlagShip 6. It's incredibly slow compared to the very pretty FlagShip 4, but you have to use FlagShip 6 on Linux if you want a modern server (newer glibc). The harbor is without a doubt the way! "

Answer 11

I never used it, but I understand that Vulcan.NET was created to provide an update path from Clipper / xBase / Visual Objects in the .NET Framework. Maybe worth a look.