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Concept
Clipper (programming language)
Summary
Clipper is an xBase compiler that implements a variant of the xBase computer programming language. It is used to create
or extend software programs that originally operated primarily under MS-DOS. Although it is a powerful general-purpose programming
language, it was primarily used to create database/business programs.
One major dBase feature not implemented in Clipper is the dot-prompt (. prompt) interactive command set, which was an important part of the original dBase implementation.
Clipper, from Nantucket Corp and later Computer Associates, started out as a native code compiler for dBase III databases, and later evolved.
Clipper was created by Nantucket Corporation, a company that was started in 1984 by Barry ReBell (management) and Brian Russell (technical);
Larry Heimendinger was Nantucket's president. In 1992, the company was sold to Computer Associates for 190 million dollars and the product was renamed to CA-Clipper.
Clipper was created as a replacement programming language for Ashton Tate's dBASE III, a very popular database language at the time. The advantage of Clipper over dBASE was that it could be compiled and executed under MS-DOS as a standalone application. In the years between 1985 and 1992, millions of Clipper applications were built, typically for small businesses dealing with databases concerning many aspects of client management and inventory management. For many smaller businesses, having a Clipper application designed to their specific needs was their first experience with software development. Also a lot of applications for banking and insurance companies were developed, here especially in those cases where the application was considered too small to be developed and run on traditional mainframes. In these environments Clipper also served as a front end for existing mainframe applications.
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.
Official source
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