Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!isi.edu!gremlin!nrtc!maurit From: maurit@nrtc.nrtc.northrop.com (Mark Aurit ) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Clipper 5.01 bugs Message-ID: <24677@gremlin.nrtc.northrop.com> Date: 20 May 91 19:32:14 GMT References: <1991May14.170431.1509@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991May15.210031.23270@pegasus.com> <24450@gremlin.nrtc.northrop.com> <1991May17.211857.18269@pegasus.com> Sender: news@gremlin.nrtc.northrop.com Reply-To: maurit@nrtc.nrtc.northrop.com (Mark Aurit) Organization: Northrop Research & Technology Center, Palos Verdes, CA Lines: 31 In article <1991May17.211857.18269@pegasus.com> tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan) writes: >dBASE IV, the prefer not to. I sat in Larry Heimendinger's office and told >him to expect to lose the low-end dBASE user who only used Clipper as a >"packager" to compile their final dBASE III application. I believe that Ah well, it looks like Tom has seen my true colors. We actually write our code in dBASE III (not III+, too techie), just run clipper.exe against the main module (everthing else is referenced by a "do", none of them functions or external thingies), and link using PLINK. Right. A while back, you wrote of a Foxpro "attitude". Im sure this is a complete surprise to you, but there is a very real attitude associtated with Clipper programmers; your little statement above shows you to be a charter Clipperhead. Those people would not use dBASE because it is >seriously flawed as a language (not necessarily flawed as a tool however). I dont know how you define the dBASE language, but just because no one else has STATIC variables you find them all seriously flawed. I tend to define a language based on its ability to perform a task, not its perceived technical excellence. IMHO a good language makes the underlying architecture TOTALLY transparent to the developer - obviously Nantucket and I differ in this philosophy. >BTW, the sales figures for Clipper completely counter your hypothesis that >sales are waining. Personally I don't care what product anybody uses but >I don't like people to base their decisions on misleading information. Nor do I. I *very* seriously doubt these sales figures. Ive certainly read letters of people saying they were leaving the Clipper fold, and have difficulty conceiving what someone would buy a product that reference journals, magazines, and the internet said was buggy. Ill bet Nantucket was merely counting upgrades, not an uncommon practice in the industry. Mark