Clipper Migration ToolKit Business Opportunity
in [Visual Objects]
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From: RodDaSilva on 5 Sep 2006 15:43 Clipper - the first and most successful compiler for dBase - was a great product in its day. It was "the COBOL of the DOS world". Applications written in Clipper ran trouble free - in some cases for decades. Its clean, easy to use "pointerless" language and runtime, along with built in DBF access, gave it a distinct competitive advantage over more traditional language choices such as C, C++, or Pascal, for developing complex business applications. And with millions of dBase developers around, there was no shortage of resources to help build and maintain Clipper applications. Yes, as the popularity of the PC exploded in the late 80s and early 90s, it was a great time to be a DOS business application developer - and Clipper was king! The problem however, is that times and platforms change. Over the years the native 16-bit platform has disappeared, replaced with 16-bit "emulators" in the last several 32-bit versions of Windows. 16-bit DOS emulators have become increasingly weaker as Microsoft attempts to phase them out. Due to being notoriously difficult to manage memory above the 1-MB range, it is widely rumored that 16-bit DOS emulation in the upcoming 32-bit Windows Vista release will be restricted to the 1-MB boundary, and that no 16-bit DOS emulation will be supported on 64-bit Windows Vista. This will create even more problems for already memory-confined Clipper applications that routinely consume memory well past the natural 640K DOS boundary using extended memory linkers such as Blinker and ExoSpace. Furthermore, since the vendor of Clipper - CA (Computer Associates) stopped developing the product over a decade ago newer languages have long since eclipsed Clipper in popularity. As aging baby-boomer Clipper developers retire, virtually no new Clipper developers arrive to take their place; continually eroding the developer pool available to maintain applications written in the language. And since the product isn't being developed it becomes increasingly difficult (if not impossible) to take advantage of maturing state-of-the-art technologies such as the latest in relational databases, Xml, or web services, to name just three. Still those massive, well designed, rock-solid Clipper applications - written for every corner of industry and every level of government, all over the world - continue to run. Today many huge Clipper applications - applications with 100s of data entry screens and reports - serve as the work horse of large Fortune 2000 companies and governmental organizations, and small companies alike in every region in the world. These applications all share a common theme...they typically have very large code bases (in the 10s if not 100s of thousands of lines of code), and they are immensely important to their organizations. These two facts must be true otherwise these applications would have been replaced over the years with more modern technology, or simply retired long ago. The reality is that IT shops that manage these critical applications are understandably worried. With time running out on the platform on which they run, no further vendor support, a vastly reduced developer community, little in support of today's leading integration technologies - an urgency has developed for many organizations with respect to finding a way to move these applications off of both the 16-bit platform and the legacy Clipper language onto something more modern. Indeed, the collective understanding for these companies is that these workhorse Clipper applications have become victims of their very success. The huge investments made in these proprietary Clipper applications that in many cases define their companies' very competitive advantage, are now in serous jeopardy. A plan needs to be made to reproduce the critical functionality these applications provide in a modern environment, using a modern developer tool set in order to ensure the success of these applications for another 20 years. The big question is how? Many organizations do not have the stomach for the cost ( and more importantly the risk) involved in a "big bang" rewrite. And while Clipper "clones" are available for the Win32 environment, many organizations struggle with the realization that the Win32 environment is also quickly becoming obsolete, surpassed by Microsoft's .Net platform that has now been out for over 5 years and is entering its 3rd major release. Businesses are not interested in migrating their applications from a dead platform to one that is itself dying only to have to face the same problem all over again in a few years time. What's needed is a solution that will see 100% of a company's Clipper investment migrated to the state-of-the-art .Net platform. What is needed is a scientific approach, driven by proven compiler/translation software techniques that will move a Clipper application entirely to the .Net platform without having to "touch" the source code. What is needed is a solution that guarantees no loss of application functionality. What is needed is a low risk solution provided by automated tools at a fixed price - one you feed Clipper source code to and get out equivalent source code in any desired .Net language including the very popular C# and VB.Net languages. Introducing the "Clipper Migration ToolKit" (CMTK) from Software Perspectives. This toolkit is a combination of software and services designed specifically to address the increasing concerns surrounding legacy Clipper applications that businesses are facing all over the world. Simply put, the CMTK is a translation toolset that will take any Clipper source code and automatically translate it into equivalent code in the most popular .Net languages with no loss of functionality. Software Perspectives plans to make the CMTK available to other developers through its Clipper Migration ToolKit Partnership Program (CMTKPP). This special partnership program is designed to empower independent software vendors (ISVs) and consultants that have customers still running Clipper applications. The CMTKPP will allow Clipper ISVs and consultants to leverage their existing customer base to drive new sources of revenue through innovative state-of-the-art Clipper migration services using Software Perspectives' CMTK. The CMTKPP provides access to the highly specialized CMTK for use in lucrative Clipper migration p
From: Graham McKechnie on 6 Sep 2006 06:06 Rod, This sounds really hot. Your message has been sitting here for nearly 12 hours and not one reply. Most organizations I get to visit these days - have never even heard of Clipper. Wish you luck with it, but I hope you get some bites. Graham "RodDaSilva" <RodDaSilva(a)SoftwarePerspectives.com> wrote in message news:1157485401.796124.286990(a)i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > Clipper - the first and most successful compiler for dBase - was a > great product in its day. It was "the COBOL of the DOS world". > Applications written in Clipper ran trouble free - in some cases for > decades. Its clean, easy to use "pointerless" language and > runtime, along with built in DBF access, gave it a distinct competitive > advantage over more traditional language choices such as C, C++, or > Pascal, for developing complex business applications. And with > millions of dBase developers around, there was no shortage of resources > to help build and maintain Clipper applications. Yes, as the > popularity of the PC exploded in the late 80s and early 90s, it was a > great time to be a DOS business application developer - and Clipper > was king! > > The problem however, is that times and platforms change. Over the > years the native 16-bit platform has disappeared, replaced with 16-bit > "emulators" in the last several 32-bit versions of Windows. > 16-bit DOS emulators have become increasingly weaker as Microsoft > attempts to phase them out. Due to being notoriously difficult to > manage memory above the 1-MB range, it is widely rumored that 16-bit > DOS emulation in the upcoming 32-bit Windows Vista release will be > restricted to the 1-MB boundary, and that no 16-bit DOS emulation will > be supported on 64-bit Windows Vista. This will create even more > problems for already memory-confined Clipper applications that > routinely consume memory well past the natural 640K DOS boundary using > extended memory linkers such as Blinker and ExoSpace. > > Furthermore, since the vendor of Clipper - CA (Computer Associates) > stopped developing the product over a decade ago newer languages have > long since eclipsed Clipper in popularity. As aging baby-boomer > Clipper developers retire, virtually no new Clipper developers arrive > to take their place; continually eroding the developer pool available > to maintain applications written in the language. And since the > product isn't being developed it becomes increasingly difficult (if > not impossible) to take advantage of maturing state-of-the-art > technologies such as the latest in relational databases, Xml, or web > services, to name just three. > > Still those massive, well designed, rock-solid Clipper applications - > written for every corner of industry and every level of government, all > over the world - continue to run. > > Today many huge Clipper applications - applications with 100s of data > entry screens and reports - serve as the work horse of large Fortune > 2000 companies and governmental organizations, and small companies > alike in every region in the world. These applications all share a > common theme...they typically have very large code bases (in the 10s if > not 100s of thousands of lines of code), and they are immensely > important to their organizations. These two facts must be true > otherwise these applications would have been replaced over the years > with more modern technology, or simply retired long ago. > > The reality is that IT shops that manage these critical applications > are understandably worried. With time running out on the platform on > which they run, no further vendor support, a vastly reduced developer > community, little in support of today's leading integration > technologies - an urgency has developed for many organizations with > respect to finding a way to move these applications off of both the > 16-bit platform and the legacy Clipper language onto something more > modern. > > Indeed, the collective understanding for these companies is that these > workhorse Clipper applications have become victims of their very > success. The huge investments made in these proprietary Clipper > applications that in many cases define their companies' very > competitive advantage, are now in serous jeopardy. A plan needs to be > made to reproduce the critical functionality these applications provide > in a modern environment, using a modern developer tool set in order to > ensure the success of these applications for another 20 years. The big > question is how? > > Many organizations do not have the stomach for the cost ( and more > importantly the risk) involved in a "big bang" rewrite. And while > Clipper "clones" are available for the Win32 environment, many > organizations struggle with the realization that the Win32 environment > is also quickly becoming obsolete, surpassed by Microsoft's .Net > platform that has now been out for over 5 years and is entering its 3rd > major release. Businesses are not interested in migrating their > applications from a dead platform to one that is itself dying only to > have to face the same problem all over again in a few years time. > > What's needed is a solution that will see 100% of a company's > Clipper investment migrated to the state-of-the-art .Net platform. > What is needed is a scientific approach, driven by proven > compiler/translation software techniques that will move a Clipper > application entirely to the .Net platform without having to "touch" > the source code. What is needed is a solution that guarantees no loss > of application functionality. What is needed is a low risk solution > provided by automated tools at a fixed price - one you feed Clipper > source code to and get out equivalent source code in any desired .Net > language including the very popular C# and VB.Net languages. > > Introducing the "Clipper Migration ToolKit" (CMTK) from Software > Perspectives. This toolkit is a combination of software and services > designed specifically to address the increasing concerns surrounding > legacy Clipper applications that businesses are facing all over the > world. Simply put, the CMTK is a translation toolset that will take > any Clipper source code and automatically translate it into equivalent > code in the most popular .Net languages with no loss of functionality. > > Software Perspectives plans to make the CMTK avail
From: RodDaSilva on 6 Sep 2006 06:50 Graham Well I did ask people to respond privately. I am sensitive to the fact that this announcement will not be of interest to most here and me posting it amounts to spam <g> (hopefully not completely off topic). I am hoping that given my loyalty and contribution to the VO community over the past decade people that know me will excuse me this one time <g>. All other info regarding the CMTK will be provided for now in a private section of the www.CULEPlace.com website for those that express interest as per the bottom of my long announcement. And by the way...I already have lots of bites <g>. Take care. Rod Graham McKechnie wrote: > Rod, > > This sounds really hot. Your message has been sitting here for nearly 12 > hours and not one reply. > > Most organizations I get to visit these days - have never even heard of > Clipper. > > Wish you luck with it, but I hope you get some bites. > > Graham >
From: Mullet on 6 Sep 2006 11:31 Hi Rod, I am out of Clipper and VO now, but I think you are on the right track. You are the only one who has offered a functional and practical solution for Clipper/VO users to move forwards. You are small on hype and big on delivery. Keep up the good work. This is a public news group, so post what you want. I worked with your COM stuff for years and it was excellent. If anyone doesn't like your posts they can go back to there "pay per view" little club thingy. Am I right that you can convert VO code to C#? Jamie "RodDaSilva" <RodDaSilva(a)SoftwarePerspectives.com> wrote in message news:1157539807.253012.120200(a)e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com... > Graham > > Well I did ask people to respond privately. I am sensitive to the fact > that this announcement will not be of interest to most here and me > posting it amounts to spam <g> (hopefully not completely off topic). I > am hoping that given my loyalty and contribution to the VO community > over the past decade people that know me will excuse me this one time > <g>. > > All other info regarding the CMTK will be provided for now in a private > section of the www.CULEPlace.com website for those that express > interest as per the bottom of my long announcement. > > And by the way...I already have lots of bites <g>. > > Take care. > Rod > > Graham McKechnie wrote: >> Rod, >> >> This sounds really hot. Your message has been sitting here for nearly 12 >> hours and not one reply. >> >> Most organizations I get to visit these days - have never even heard of >> Clipper. >> >> Wish you luck with it, but I hope you get some bites. >> >> Graham >> >
From: "Marshall Rhinehart" mrhp on 6 Sep 2006 19:04
Mullet, > This is a public news group, so post what you want. I worked with your COM > stuff for years and it was excellent. If anyone doesn't like your posts > they can go back to there "pay per view" little club thingy. Agreed. You wonder if the traffic in the 'club' is dwindling at the same rate it is here. Maybe Graham can take a swim so they'll be something for us to comment on. Perhaps we should just post C# questions...after all, if we were serious 'VO' developers we'd pay to play...right? Marshall "Mullet" <mullet(a)yahoo.ca> wrote in message news:bRBLg.5936$0k7.3159(a)clgrps13... > Hi Rod, > > I am out of Clipper and VO now, but I think you are on the right track. > You are the only one who has offered a functional and practical solution > for Clipper/VO users to move forwards. You are small on hype and big on > delivery. Keep up the good work. > > > > This is a public news group, so post what you want. I worked with your COM > stuff for years and it was excellent. If anyone doesn't like your posts > they can go back to there "pay per view" little club thingy. Am I right > that you can convert VO code to C#? > > > > Jamie > > "RodDaSilva" <RodDaSilva(a)SoftwarePerspectives.com> wrote in message > news:1157539807.253012.120200(a)e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com... >> Graham >> >> Well I did ask people to respond privately. I am sensitive to the fact >> that this announcement will not be of interest to most here and me >> posting it amounts to spam <g> (hopefully not completely off topic). I >> am hoping that given my loyalty and contribution to the VO community >> over the past decade people that know me will excuse me this one time >> <g>. >> >> All other info regarding the CMTK will be provided for now in a private >> section of the www.CULEPlace.com website for those that express >> interest as per the bottom of my long announcement. >> >> And by the way...I already have lots of bites <g>. >> >> Take care. >> Rod >> >> Graham McKechnie wrote: >>> Rod, >>> >>> This sounds really hot. Your message has been sitting here for nearly 12 >>> hours and not one reply. >>> >>> Most organizations I get to visit these days - have never even heard of >>> Clipper. >>> >>> Wish you luck with it, but I hope you get some bites. >>> >>> Graham >>> >> > > |