Clarion

Clarion is a 4GL programming language and Integrated Development Environment from SoftVelocity used to program database applications. more...

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It is compatible with ISAM, SQL and ADO data access methods, reads and writes several flat file desktop database formats including ASCII, CSV, DOS (Binary), FoxPro, Clipper, dBase, or all SQL RDBMS databases via ODBC, MS SQL Server, Sybase SQLAnywhere and Oracle through the use of accelerated native database drivers, and XML, Clarion can be used to output to HTML, XML, plaintext, and PDF, among others. As of the time of writing (2006), Clarion is on version 6.3.

Database access is simple to implement, and list box formatting can be handled with easy to use WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) formatting windows.

One of the Clarion Development Environment's strong points is its use of "templates" which are used in conjunction with a code generator (named AppGen) to produce much of the repetitive, time consuming code that is typically required when producing an application. An "embeditor" shows the developer the code that will be generated and embed points where the developer can enter their own hand-code in the context of the template generated code.

Templates are open for developers to modify to suit their needs increasing the flexibility of what can be done in Clarion. Also a number of companies including SoftVelocity produce and sell additional templates to supplement what is included with the Clarion product.

Development of templates that generate Microsoft .NET code from Clarion applications is underway at SoftVelocity, which will enable Clarion developers to provide .NET code to clients who need their projects to be developed in Microsoft technology.

History

The first release of the Clarion language was a DOS product called Clarion 1.0 and was first released in April of 1986. Clarion was created by Bruce Barrington, the founder of healthcare HBO and Company (now McKesson), and a small team of developers. Barrington's goal was to create a language that would be compact and expressive, and would maximize the use of the memory-mapped screen of the IBM PC by creating a screen designer. Version 1 produced pseudocode; the initial release included a screen designer, an interpreter, an editor, and a debugger. Initially it supported databases composed of DAT files, Clarion’s proprietary, and quite flexible, ISAM file format. Bruce Barrington formed Barrington Systems and released version 1.0.

Clarion 1.0 required the use of a dongle, at a time when industry sentiment was turning against dongles, which was offset by the ability to create royalty-free applications. However the dongle was removed with the release of 1.1.

Version 2.0, released in May 1988, was known as Clarion Professional Developer, or CPD, and included a component called Designer, which incorporated a data dictionary. CPD generated Clarion code based on the contents of that dictionary and a template called a "model file." Because the model file was a text file, it could be modified (in limited ways) to create custom code. The model file was implemented with the "browse and form" paradigm, where data is initially displayed to the user in list box, and updating is done via a form called via buttons associated with the list. Designer created all the essential of the CRUD (create, read, update, delete) code, and developers could enhance functionality by inserting code at specified points in the generated code, or by hand-coding new procedures. Clarion Professional Developer also introduced Language Extension Modules (LEMs), that could extend the Clarion language using modules compiled in other languages that were built to the LEM format. Clarion Software and many third-party tool developers created LEMs for all purposes, including an extension for connecting to other databases such as dBase, Clipper and Paradox.

Read more at Wikipedia.org