From: dennis.gleeson@woodybbs.com (Dennis Gleeson)
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 95 10:29:00 -0500
Organization: WoodyWare Software, Inc. - 516-736-6662


COMPUTER EDUCATION PRODUCT REVIEW: CA-Clipper Basics: A Samples Disk
AMULET Consulting
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Review by: Jason Yip
           Singapore Economic Development Board

The CA-Clipper 5.2 application development product from Computer 
Associates, Inc. (the world's 2nd largest software company) is globally 
recognized as the premier programming language for serious database 
developer's for the DOS platform. Although CA- Clipper has its roots in 
the Xbase industry, once being solely a dBASE III compiler, the product 
has matured over the years to be a very respected alternative to the C 
language for developing desktop computer applications. However as with 
C, the learning curve is often steeper than many would hope for. I'm 
glad to report there is now a product that is directed specifically at 
beginning Clipper developers. 

AMULET Consulting has recently begun shipping a disk based educational 
product that eases the transition towards professional CA-Clipper 
programming. The "CA-CLIPPER BASICS: A SAMPLES DISK" product contains 
hundreds of code samples and application components that exhibit ways to 
use CA-Clipper's most difficult to understand features such as ragged 
array, code blocks, user defined commands (UDCs), scope and lifetime 
rules, predefined classes such as TBrowse and TBColumn, direct file 
access, memo fields, etc. 

The samples disk was originally marketed as a companion disk for the 
1994 computer book "CA-Clipper 5.2 Step by Step", published by John 
Wiley & Sons, Inc. and written by Dan D. Gutierrez, AMULET's president. 
This book was based primarily on Mr. Gutierrez' monthly column appearing 
in Data Based Advisor magazine entitled "Clipper Basics." Mr. Gutierrez 
now writes the "Hardcore Clipper" column also for DBA. He also conducts 
a CA- Clipper on-site corporate seminar series, "The Clipper Expert 
Series" and teaches Clipper programming for UCLA Extension. A world 
class expert in the field of Clipper programming, Mr. Gutierrez 
regularly speaks at industry conferences both in the US and abroad. 

The samples disk is arranged by "chapter" where each chapter represents 
a different CA-Clipper topic matter. Here is a complete list of topics: 

Chapter 1: The CA-Clipper Development Environment, linkers, etc.
Chapter 2: Basic Language Components
Chapter 3: The Preprocessor
Chapter 4: User Defined Commands
Chapter 5: Subprograms, including scope and lifetime rules
Chapter 6: Codeblocks
Chapter 7: Arrays
Chapter 8: Database Access, including RDDs, the Order Management
           System
Chapter 9: Memo Fields
Chapter 10: Object Based Technology
Chapter 11: TBrowse
Chapter 12: Direct File Access, the F* functions
Chapter 13: Applications, data entry and reporting

I have reviewed the code on the disk and have found it to be in 
excellent form. All the code has been thoroughly tested and the coding 
style is world-class. The best way to benefit from the samples disk is 
to print out one large code listing book and use the debugger to try out 
the samples, analyzing the results as you go. After getting through each 
example, I can safely say, you'll be a CA-Clipper programmer. 

The bottom line is, if you're already a dBASE programmer or a programmer 
still using the Clipper Summer '87 release (the release prior to Clipper 
5), then this samples disk is a perfect way to get up to speed with the 
current release, 5.2d (as well as the soon-to-be-released version 5.3). 
It is also a good way to prepare yourself for the upcoming Windows based 
product from CA called CA-Visual Objects. 

The samples disk is available on a 3.5 or 5.25 inch high density floppy 
disk and costs $19.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling ($24.95 total 
cost). California residents please add 8.25% sales tax. Orders with 
personal or company checks can be mailed to AMULET Consulting, P.O. Box 
241713, Suite 21, Los Angeles, CA 90024. International orders please 
remit in US funds. 

               Reprinted by permission of AMULET:VC BBS


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 * CMPQwk #1.42-20 * UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY