Clipper is a computer programming language that is used to create software programs that originally operated primarily under DOS. Although it is a powerful general-purpose programming language, it was primarily used to create database/business programs. A programming language is an artificial language that can be used to control the behavior of a machine, particularly a computer. ... A computer program is a collection of instructions that describe a task, or set of tasks, to be carried out by a computer. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... The term or expression database originated within the computer industry. ...

Clipper was originally created in 1985 as a compiler for dBASE III, a very popular database language at the time. Compiling dBASE code changes it from interpreted code (i.e., human-readable source code), which must be interpreted every time each line of code is executed, to p-code (or pseudo-code), which uses a Virtual Machine to process the compiled p-code. p-code is considerably faster, but still not as fast as the machine code generated by native compilers. Clipper was created by Nantucket Corporation, and later sold to Computer Associates. On April 22, 2002 Computer Associates and GrafX Software announced they had reached a Development, Licensing, and Marketing Agreement for two of their software development languages -- CA-Clipper and CA-Visual Objects. 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the computing term. ... dBASE III The correct title of this article is dBASE. The initial letter is capitalized because of technical restrictions. ... A compiler is a computer program that translates a computer program written in one computer language (called the source language) into an equivalent program written in another computer language (called the output or the target language). ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... An interpreter is a computer program that executes other programs. ... In computer programming, a P-code machine or pseudo-code machine is a specification of a cpu whose instructions are expected to be executed in software rather than in hardware (ie, interpreted). ... In computer science, a virtual machine is software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system, so that the end user can operate software on an abstract machine. ... A system of codes directly understandable by a computers CPU is termed this CPUs native or machine language. ... CA, Inc. ... CA, Inc. ... Visual Objects is a computer programming language that is used to create software programs that operate primarily under Windows. ...

As the product matured, it remained a DOS tool for many years, but added elements of the C programming language and Pascal programming language, as well as OOP, and the code-block data-type (hybridizing the concepts of dBase macros, or string-evaluation, and function pointers), to become far more powerful than the original. Nantucket's Aspen project later matured into the Windows native-code Visual Objects compiler. ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... C is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system. ... Pascal is an imperative computer programming language, developed in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a language particularly suitable for structured programming. ... Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that uses objects to design applications and computer programs. ... In computer science, a datatype or data type (often simply a type) is a name or label for a set of values and some operations which one can perform on that set of values. ... A macro in computer science is an abstraction, that defines how a certain input pattern is replaced by an output pattern according to a defined set of rules. ... In computer programming and some branches of mathematics, strings are sequences of various simple objects. ... A function pointer is a type of pointer in the C, C++ and D programming languages. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. ... Visual Objects is a computer programming language that is used to create software programs that operate primarily under Windows. ...

As of 2006, the Clipper language is being actively implemented, and extended, by multiple organizations/vendors, free (GPL-licensed) like CLIP, Harbour, xHarbour, as well as commercial compilers like XBase++, and FlagShip. For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... This article is about free software as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely-used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... Harbour is a free software compiler for the xBase superset language often referred to as Clipper (the language that is implemented by the compiler CA-Clipper). ... xHarbour is a free (GPL + exception supporting commercial applications) multi-platform (DOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux (32,64), Unix (32,64), OS/X) extended Clipper compiler, offering multiple GT (Graphic Terminals), including console drivers, GUIs (free such as HWGui, MiniGUI and commercial, such as Visual xHarbour, FiveWin, Xailer), and Hybrid Console... XBase++ is an object oriented programming language which has multiple inheritance and polymorphism. ...

Many of the current (2006) implementations are portable (DOS, Windows, Linux (32- and 64-bit), Unix (32- and 64-bit), and OS X), supporting many language extensions [1], and have greatly extended runtime libraries, as well as various Replaceable Database Drivers (RDD) supporting many popular database formats, like DBF, DBTNTX, DBFCDX (FoxPro and Comix), MachSix (Apollo), SQL, and more. These newer implementations all strive for full compatibility with the standard dBase/xBase syntax, while also offering OOP approaches and target-based syntax such as SQLExecute(). For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system family. ... 32-bit is a term applied to processors, and computer architectures which manipulate the address and data in 32-bit chunks. ... In computing, a 64-bit component is one in which data are processed or stored in 64-bit units (words). ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... In computer science, runtime describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination (compare compile time). ... dBASE III The correct title of this article is dBASE. The initial letter is capitalized because of technical restrictions. ... Visual FoxPro is a data-centric object-oriented and procedural programming language by Microsoft. ... SQL (commonly expanded to Structured Query Language — see History for the terms derivation) is the most popular computer language used to create, retrieve, update and delete (see also: CRUD) data from relational database management systems. ... xBase is the generic term for all programming languages that derive from the original dBase (Ashton-Tate) programming language. ...

As of 2006, the Clipper Usenet newsgroups comp.lang.clipper and comp.lang.clipper.visual-objects are still active. For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ... A newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users at different locations. ...

Programming in Clipper

A simple hello world - application: A hello world program is a computer program that prints out Hello, world! on a display device. ...

 ? "Hello World!" 

A simple data base input mask:

 USE Customer SHARED NEW cls @ 1, 0 SAY "CustNum" GET Customer->CustNum PICT "999999" VALID Customer->CustNum > 0 @ 3, 0 SAY "Contact" GET Customer->Contact VALID !empty(Customer->Contact) @ 4, 0 SAY "Address" GET Customer->Address READ 

The various versions of Clipper were

From Nantucket Corporation; the "seasonal versions", billed as "dBase compilers" dBASE III The correct title of this article is dBASE. The initial letter is capitalized because of technical restrictions. ... A compiler is a computer program that translates a computer program written in one computer language (called the source language) into an equivalent program written in another computer language (called the output or the target language). ...

• 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

From Nantucket Corporation; Clipper 5 May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 61 days remaining. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

• 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; CA-Clipper 5 MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... CA, Inc. ...

• 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

February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... March 15 is the 74th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (75th in leap years). ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 26 is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 188 days remaining. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 20 is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... May 20 is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• GrafX Software
• mini Clipper FAQ
• The Oasis is the largest file archive for CA-Clipper and xBase on the web
• Clip compiler
• Harbour Project
• xHarbour Project
• Alaska Software Xbase++
• Multisoft's Flagship
• Vulcan.NET, Clipper like language for Microsoft .NET
• NTK Project, WIN32 Gui Framework for (x)Harbour, backward compatible with Clipper and Clip4Win.
• FGLib open source graphic library for CA-Clipper
• DoubleS open source - new programming paradigm for CA-Clipper