Clarion

In order to appreciate the Power of CLACom For Windows, you should know about Clarion and how it came about. Clarion brings you the expertise of the Borland Founders and the vision of Bruce Barrington.

A layman's guide to the merits of
Clarion for Windows

Perhaps you are a programmer. You are using Visual Basic or Delphi or PowerBuilder. You have heard about Clarion. And you know how enthusiastic Clarion developers can be. You may ask: "What's all the fuss about?" "What's so great about Clarion?"

Or maybe you are an Information Systems Manager. You have a huge backlog that never seems to get any shorter. Some of your departments are using Clarion to develop local solutions while they wait for your attention. They are pleased with the results they are achieving. And you want to know: "Is Clarion an appropriate tool for developing enterprise software?" "Will it connect to our server?" "Is TopSpeed for real?"

Or you may be a consulting client. Your developers want to use Clarion. And they are adamant about it. You want to know why. So you ask: "What's a Clarion?" "Who is TopSpeed?" "Shouldn't I prefer a big company like Microsoft or Borland or Sybase?"

These are reasonable questions. Certainly TopSpeed and Clarion are not household names. They don't crop up in cocktail hour chatter-unless you are at a software developers conference. Even at conferences, Clarion developers may be reluctant to say much about their "secret weapon". But when you get them started talking about Clarion, its hard to get them to stop. Because Clarion developers love their tool and the success it brings them. Here are some of the things they will tell you:

Clarion slashes development effort

The single most important benefit of Clarion is reduced software development effort. Clarion developers complete projects in a third of the time that would be required by Visual Basic, Delphi, or PowerBuilder developers. The reason is simple: The Clarion application generation technology creates source code that programmers don't have to write.

Like VB and Delphi, Clarion applications reuse code that is already written in the form of custom controls (.VBX and .OCX) or embedded objects (OLE). But unlike VB and Delphi, Clarion can generate major portions of an application automatically. This isn't "off the shelf" code. The application generation process can be finely tuned by the developer to create highly complex "made to order" software. This methodology takes a fraction of the time and effort that would be consumed by conventional software development tools such as VB, Delphi, and PowerBuilder.

Clarion generated code isn't "pre-written", but it is "pre-tested". A Clarion developer is virtually guaranteed that generated code will compile and run the first time. This is a very different experience from conventional programming which requires a painstaking process of debugging one statement at a time.

Clarion reduces maintenance

Most application generators, such as the Delphi Forms Expert can only be used once. If you change generated source code, the application generator will wipe out your changes if it is used again. That leaves developers with a "Hobson's choice": a plain vanilla application or a major maintenance headache.

The Clarion application generator can be used for the entire life cycle of an application no matter how heavily customized it becomes. Clarion applications reside in two repositories: a data dictionary and an application model. The Clarion data dictionary is unique. Most data dictionaries contain information about how data is stored and accessed. The Clarion data dictionary also contains information about how data is displayed and processed. If a database changes or its rules of behavior change or its presentation style changes, a Clarion developer simply corrects the data dictionary, synchronizes the application model, and regenerates the application. Nothing could be easier.

It is just as simple to modify or enhance an application. The same methodology is used to maintain a Clarion application that was used to create it. This is possible because a Clarion developer never changes generated source code. Source code is embedded into the application model so it can be emitted along with the generated code every time the application generator is invoked.

Maintaining applications in design repositories like the application model and data dictionary has the side benefit of standardizing and documenting the applications. Clarion applications never become obsolete-they are self-illuminating. If the original developer of an application is not available to make revisions, the project can be assigned to another Clarion developer. The data dictionary and application model will instantly communicate the underlying design.

Clarion accesses data anywhere

Clarion uses proprietary database drivers to make every database look alike. This produces "database neutral" applications that can easily be retargeted from one database to another. Importantly, there is no cost associated with this portability, because Clarion database drivers optimize database operations.

As a result, the performance of a Clarion database application is indistinguishable from an application written in the C language using a native database interface. Only a very talented C or Delphi programmer can match the performance of a Clarion program. It is impossible to produce Clarion performance with Visual Basic or PowerBuilder.

Clarion database access assumes that every database engine contains maximum functionality. Features that are missing in a database engine are supplied by its Clarion database driver. This approach optimizes Clarion database access by choosing efficient access functions and by supplementing or replacing inefficient or missing functions.

Clarion migrates legacy applications

Any developer who has converted a DOS application to Windows will tell you that the application must be completely redesigned. A straight conversion won't "feel" like a Windows program. It won't exhibit "standard Windows behavior". And, of course, it won't use all the fancy "gizmos" that make Windows application easy and fun to use. The developer will probably convince you that the considerable effort spent in cloning a Windows "work-alike" of a DOS program would be wasted.

So it is not surprising to learn that there are no tools that will automatically convert a DOS program to a Windows program. The intellectual component of the process simply cannot be automated. You have to do it by hand. Unless...

Unless your are a Clarion developer. By focusing on the database an application processes, Clarion for Windows eliminates much of the effort required to migrate legacy DOS applications to Windows. It works like this:

First, you import the database structure into a Clarion data dictionary. Clarion database drivers provide this service. Next you "fuss" over the dictionary, adding file relationships, descriptions, prompt words, column headings, etc. Finally, you run the Clarion Application Wizard. Presto!

The wizard creates a complete Windows 95/98 style application that processes your legacy database. In place. Concurrently with your DOS application. It's true that some custom development will be necessary to finalize the Windows version. But the magnitude of the project has been enormously reduced.

Clarion Applications are fast

Consider Microsoft Access. Access is a database manager. You program Access by providing a script-a role to play. Then Access "acts out" your application for you. That's why Access is so huge. It is full of all the "parts" it must play to perform every application imaginable. Access is also as slow as a snail because it must "interpret" scripts from its language into machine language while your application is running.

Clarion doesn't work that way. The application generator creates source code written in the Clarion language. The Clarion language has been carefully designed to be understandable to programmers-it can't be executed by a computer. Turning source code into a form that a computer can understand is called "compiling". The Clarion optimizing compiler reads Clarion source code and writes extremely efficient machine language. This process occurs during the development cycle. So Clarion applications run about as fast as a computer can go. For the record, Delphi compiles applications like Clarion. Visual Basic interprets applications like Access. PowerBuilder is partially compiled and runs a little faster than Visual Basic.

Clarion applications are efficient

Clarion applications are also efficient. A typical Clarion database application that prints a report produces an executable file of about 800K bytes. Because the database drivers and print engine are included in the .EXE file, most Clarion applications along with test data and documentation can be deployed on a single floppy disk with a single installation step.

Not so with Delphi, Visual Basic, and PowerBuilder applications. They require multiple installation steps, much more disk storage, and a lot more memory. Delphi uses the Borland Database Engine (BDE) to access databases and the ReportSmith run-time to print reports. Each requires a separate installation. Similarly, Visual Basic uses the Jet database engine and Crystal Reports run-time. PowerBuilder applications are self-contained but require the services of a huge set of dynamic link library (DLL) files. The resulting footprint of a Delphi, Visual Basic, or PowerBuilder application is over 8 megabytes.

In other words, Delphi, Visual Basic, and PowerBuilder applications are typically eight to ten times larger than Clarion applications. How can this be? There are a number of reasons:

• BDE and JET are multi-database engines that contain a lot of functionality an application will never use. Clarion drivers work with a single database. If you want to retarget a Clarion application, you simply change to a different driver.
• Visual Basic applications require a large run-time interpreter called VBRUN.DLL. Like Access, the VBRUN must play all roles for all applications.
• Like VBRUN, the PowerBuilder DLLs must play all roles for all applications.
• ReportSmith was developed by a third party using its own multi-database engine. In other words, the functionality in BDE is duplicated in ReportSmith.
• TopSpeed writes tighter code and uses more efficient tools than Borland and Microsoft. All three companies use their own compiler technology. And TopSpeed compiler technology produces better software.

Clarion does all kinds of Windows

Clarion runs on all versions of Windows and produces Windows 95/98 style applications for all versions of Windows. This is possible because the Windows 95 controls such as tool tips (balloon help) and property sheets (tabbed folders) are built into Clarion and its applications. So they look like Windows 95/98 applications even when they are running on Windows 3.1 and Windows NT. In effect, TopSpeed has upgraded Windows 3.1 and Windows NT to the Windows 95/98 "look and feel" for Microsoft. Thank you, TopSpeed. You're welcome, Microsoft.

Visual Basic and Delphi come in two versions, 16-bit or 32-bit. To include the new Windows 95 controls, you must use the 32-bit version. Then your application will not run on Windows 3.1 or Windows NT. It is another Hobson's choice: old fashioned software or orphaned end-users.

Clarion developers can produce Windows 95/98 style applications that compile into both 16-bit and 32-bit versions. A Clarion developer doesn't care what version of Windows his end-users are using. Or whether they upgrade to Windows 95. Or when. Thank you, TopSpeed. You're welcome, developer.

Clarion is an elegant business language

Clarion developers love the Clarion language. It is easy to learn, easy to write, and easy to read. Concise but clear. Simple yet powerful. The Clarion language was designed specifically for writing Windows business programs. Surprisingly, that makes it unique.

Clarion is the only Windows language with built-in support for database access. It is the only Windows language with built-in support for printing reports. As amazing as this sounds, Clarion is the only Windows language with accurate business math. In fact, Clarion arithmetic produces perfect results of up to 31 decimal digits without rounding errors.

In contrast, Delphi, Visual Basic, and PowerBuilder have no database access commands. None of them support programmable reports. And all three use floating point arithmetic, which is notorious for lost arithmetic significance and precision. No wonder Clarion developers would rather fight than switch.

The TopSpeed Legend

TopSpeed Corporation was formed in 1992 by the merger of Jensen and Partners, International with Clarion Software Corporation. The two companies were perfectly suited for each other.

Jensen and Partners, International (JPI) had spun out from Borland International in 1987 when Niels Jensen and the entire language development team left in a disagreement over compiler quality. Jensen had previously founded Borland in Copenhagen in 1979 to produce software for the emerging microcomputer market.

Jensen earned his plaque in the computer hall of fame by perfecting the integrated development environment-the underlying framework of all modern software development tools. Drawing on his expertise with word processors and menuing systems, Jensen envisioned a Pascal programming environment consisting of tightly integrated high quality components. Although, the University of California at San Diego had previously combined a Pascal compiler with a source code editor, the results were disappointing. Jensen believed that an intuitive and efficient user interface was the key to improving programmer productivity.

Borland's first hit product, Turbo Pascal, advanced the state of the art of programming tools in much the same way that Lotus 1-2-3 refined computer spreadsheets. Like Lotus 1-2-3, Turbo Pascal proved to be enormously popular, selling 300,00 copies in less than two years.

Jensen's team quickly followed that success with SideKick - another smash hit. In the meantime, the team moved to London and began writing compilers for C, an emerging language standard, and Modula-2, the successor language to Pascal. The three compilers were very similar. So a new design was proposed splitting each compiler into a "front end" and a common language independent "back end" that would produce optimized machine code. In 1989, this approach yielded the TopSpeed line of compilers which proved superior to all other compiler technology at the time.

Clarion Software Corporation was formed in 1982 by Bruce Barrington, also founder of HBO & Company. HBO, a $700 million health services company, had been named for Barrington and his cofounders, Walter Huff, Dick Owens.

The technology that produced HBO's phenomenal growth was a hospital information system built on a proprietary operating system that Barrington developed for the Four Phase line of computers. In 1970, Four Phase, Inc. had introduced the first desktop computer. Barrington, then a software development manager for McDonnell Douglas Corporation purchased the second unit shipped.

In 1973, Barrington left McDonnell Douglas and began writing Medpro on his dining room table. Nine months later, the Medpro hospital information system was installed and fully operational in a hospital in Galesburg, Illinois. In that period of time, Barrington and Owens had written an operating system, a compiler, a hospital information system, and all related documentation and training materials. Ten years later, the Medpro system was installed in more than 300 hospitals making HBO the second largest computer services company in the health care industry.

In 1982, Barrington founded Clarion Software Corporation to apply the rapid application development technology he had created for HBO to the new IBM PC. This was a natural step because the PC was architecturally similar to Four Phase computers which also used memory mapped video displays.

For 3 ½ years, Barrington's development team worked on a comprehensive set of tools for building commercial quality PC software. In 1986, Clarion Version 1.0 was introduced at the spring Comdex in Atlanta. Two years later, at another spring Comdex, Clarion introduced Clarion Professional Developer Version 2.0. This landmark product included Designer, the first of the template driven application generators that have come to characterize the Clarion product line.

By 1990, Barrington knew that the Clarion product line required a major infusion of new technology. Clarion developers were the most productive in the industry. But the programs they created were big and slow. Clarion needed a new compiler.

Barrington learned that TopSpeed compilers represented the state-of-art. Better yet, the "Back end" of a TopSpeed compiler for the Clarion language was already written. In the summer of 1990, Clarion licensed the TopSpeed compiler technology from JPI and began writing a new compiler. This project drew the two companies tightly together, culminating in a merger two years later.

Today, the TopSpeed Development Centre, located in London, represents the "crown jewels" of TopSpeed Corporation. This talented team of software designers, trained at the finest academic institutions in Europe, consistently out produce and outwit much larger competitors. Their education, experience, and chemistry is the best guarantee of a continuous stream of leading-edge technology, the life-blood of Clarion developers.