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Back to the Future, Part II
4th edition
A revised speculative article
(c) 1989-1993
H. Lee Siddons, Jr.

Fathom April, 2000
[non-interactive, standard text version]
(Please double-click voice annotation below for embedded voice
version of this article)

Volume 10, Number 4

Preface:  "The future ain't what it used to be..."

    It's been almost ten years since the "Fathom" was first
published, and as many of you are well aware, quite a lot has
happened to the computer industry as a whole, Computer
Associate's product line and the evolving database/programming
environments.   We are now on the verge of a new century, and
many speculative articles and commentaries have been
published about the industry and where we are heading as
traditional programmers, class client/server/interface engineers
and multimedia authors.  This article is a first in an evolutionary
series which will explore these issues by looking back at the
changes in the last ten years: a retrospective view if you will of
where we've been.

1990-1995

    Ten years ago, in April of 1990, most of you remember
Summer '87 marked the beginning of the end of the traditional
DOS, character-based flagship products from the defunct
company that created Clipper, Nantucket, with yet another major
upgrade, Clipper 5.0 released in 1990 for the MS-DOS
environment, that archiac OS which though still used today in
many so-called low-end applications, has followed the same ill-
fated destiny of CP/M.  That release finally provided a solution
to the memory management problem, VM (Virtual Memory and
dynamic overlays), replacing the further need if desired for any
overlays!  And lest we forget how 5.0 and the VM system had
major bugs which were fixed in the 5.01 maintenance release.
Memory was only one of the problems all software faced as it
was developed in the early nineties.  Some of us back then were
already pushing those limits of the current hardware. (I mean,
who these days uses a 486DX/50 ? Sssllllooowwwnesss).

    Then, to the surprise of some, Nantucket was purchased
by Computer Associates in 1992, the largest mainframe
software company in the world.

    We have since seen CA/"Classic" Clipper mature in 6.0
and now the current 7.0 release.

     The core language, originally based on the archaic
dBASE dialect (also abandoned by Borland in favor of its own
Object dBase flavor),  evolved and began to diversify as the
then Nantucket moved it into a "C"-like OOPS direction.  Not
only were we able to use alternative RDD (replaceable database
drivers), such as Paradox, SQL server (Microsoft/Sybase) and
Oracle (Biton), but we could ourselves augment the list of
Clipper language reserved words and functions with UDCs, the
User Definable Commands in the CH preprocessor files and
manifest contants via the CA/Clipper 5.X/6.0 language API.  The
first object classes packaged with Clipper 5.01, included the Get
system, Tbrowse and Error system.   CA-Clipper 5.2 added new
commands, more RDD's for FoxPro, Paradox and dBASE IV
files. The network, CUA/SAA, GUI and mouse object classes
came in the 1994 release.

    These were ambitious products for us, as we had to
rethink our programming nomenclature by adapting to new
concepts: recall all those articles and user-group talks we had
back then on object-orientation, cross-language binding, code
blocks, message passing, classes, encapsulation, inheritance,
methods and "arrhhgg" polymorphisms??).  There were two
camps of thought: the left-brained traditionalists who were
comfortable with their proven and familiar data and procedures
('a la Summer '87), and the more adventuresome right-brainers
(5.X) and CA-VO, who saw elegance and creativity in
WYSIWYG object-orientation. The infamous battle between the
Clipperheads and GUIes had begun. Some of us were initially
intimidated by these "new" terms and resisted these concepts as
they were debated and discussed in the CA-Clipper forum (CIS)
and through previous articles here.

    We also learned how to embed and/or call early
standard SQL into our programs easily by just using the
CONNECT/SELECT statement.  This enabled the manipulation
of large pieces of data more efficiently as well as across other
platforms and databases, collating mainframe DB 2 data as well
as client-server based SQL data.   New data types including nils,
code-blocks, formula-based, large binary (incuding graphics,
hypertext, AVI), object-class and even user-defined have since
come into being.

    Remember when the CLIPPER C.O.R.E. group, a
standards committee formed in '94 which later disbanded? It
helped pave the way to avoid any confusion as to the diverse
directions the Clipper core language was heading New OOPS
dialects could be created by anyone, so Clipper standard BNF's
and guidelines were adopted that went beyond the Clipper
guidelines published in the XBase News.  This was brought
about because several third party developers were providing
redundant variations, of new command sets and early dBASE
IV/Object dBase (ie: Matt Whelan Enterprises' the Professional
Compiler Kit for dBASE IV), FoxPro, etc. dialects that were in
some cases incompatible with one another.

    Neat features like an incremental compiler/linker (RT-
Link) and full screen symbolic debugger, including the API and
later the CA/OOPS SDK for third party developers only wetted
our appetite for more...this was only the beginning. Besides the
CA-Clipper series, in 1992 and late '93, Computer Associates
introduced the first of a set of new products, CA-VisualObjects
(a.k.a. ASPEN), with other related components like code and
report generators that would take advantage of both object-
oriented programming concepts while making some available
under new operating environments.  At the 1992 TechniCon fall
session held in New York, Computer Associates unveiled its
client-server stradegy which included CA-Clipper 5.2, dBFAST
2.0 for Windows 3.1 and at the 1993 fall TechniCon in Orlando
CA-Visual Objects 1.0 for Windows 3.1, NT and OS/2.

    The early 1990's saw this gradual change from the
Summer '87 scenario to the earlier known research project
called Nantucket Future Technology's ASPEN, an ADP
(Adaptive Platform Designed) and GUI-based, object-oriented,
hyperfile format most of us enjoy today.  But competition of
sophisticated Windows based DBMS's heated in early 1993 with
the release of major players, Microsoft and Borland.  Microsoft's
FoxPro for Windows 2.5 and it's innovative Access 1.X,
notwithstanding Paradox for Windows from Borland, placed
dubious doubts in CA's lauded, albiet late entry.  In response,
several third party developers even introduced their own serious
versions of Clipper for Windows. But some developers found it
neccessary to abandon Clipper for other Windows-based
development systems because of demand.  At that time, VO
meant "Vapor" Objects to those who doubted it would be
released in time to succeed in the marketplace.

    Computer Associate's CA-VO for Clipper under
Windows 3.1, much of which was written in assembly made it
one of the fastest compilers in the world.  But it was still under
the limiting umbrella of pre-7.0 MS-DOS.

    Visual Objects for Clipper under Windows NT or WIN32
changed all that: the beginnings of our current hybrid version
has it's roots here! We now could write true 32-bit applications
that could run not only on Intel-based, but also on RISC-based
and SMP (multiprocessor)-based machines.

1995-1999

    We could still use much of the same code you had
written earlier, as long as you followed standards. But if we
wanted to go beyond just thunking 16-bit apps and really wanted
to take advantage of the new data structures, multi-threading,
graphics, communications and MCI (Media Control Interface
drivers) using multimedia technology, all of your programs
written for Windows NT (New Technology) would have to be
redesigned.  The security and new file formats introduced in
Windows NT's NTFS (New Technology File System), provided a
mainframe-like alternative to the archiac DOS-based FAT table
structure.  Taking the best features of FAT and OS/2's HPFS,
NTFS added security and fault-tolerance and we now could use
254 characters for file names.

Routines for early DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange), DDEML,
ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), OLE 2.0 (Object Linking
and Embedding), techniques for storing and accessing graphics
(earlier TIF and JPEG), as well as TrueType font I/O
management were the subject of technical discussions back
then. VO/CLIPPER writers and developers debated and
provided solutions to such issues as to the aesthetic use of fonts
like Arial verses System and how best to adjust your program's
screens and fonts proportional to the myriad of screen/display
resolutions; how best to manage and maintain your CA-VO
configuration/registration databases; how to invoke calls to OLE
2.0 to use Word for Windows NT or WordPerfect for Windows
NT as the VO editor for memos and/or text data objects;
CUA/SAA compliance for non-corporate based applications; to
even debating the storage requirements as well as the legalities
of cut and pasting real time broadcast TV pictures into CA-VO
graphic AVI objects via TV/digital boards.  Since the standard
interface of pull-down windows, dialog boxes, radio buttons and
bit-mapped graphics provided a new paradigm, in subsequent
VO releases, more emphasis was placed on RDD/ODBC
features and performance as well as new multi-tasking/threading
optimization of index algorithms, hypermemo text techniques
and device drivers that would take advantage of the latest
hardware advances.  CA-VO for Windows 4.0 (Chicago) and NT
4.0 (CAIRO) debuted, which realized newly designed object-
oriented device independent applications with the help of many
CASE (Computer Assisted Systems Engineering) tools hitting
the market back in 1994.

The plan for a mainframe version, CA-Clipper Unicenter-
Mainframe, was later shelved since mainframes have gradually
been phased out through downsizing, used instead as high-level
platforms in favor of mega-data repositories.

TODAY & TOMORROW

    Hardware advances helped to complement the evolution
of the current VO/CHAT (Clipper Hybrid Aspen Toolset).  Since
mega memory chips are not as cost prohibitive as they were ten
years ago, the newly released Windows NT 5.0/OS/2 API combo
now can run comfortably under 16 MEGS of RAM, and if that's
not enough many of us will have new 250 MHZ 64-bit P7
systems equipped with enough virtual dynamic laser storage to
handle any overhead.

    Next year, or as many of us like to say, "next century", a
new prototype multi-media HDTV/computer will be on the
market from AT&T/Zenith, which replaces the Smartphone
series.   This piece of advanced hardware finally promises the
first true connection between the hybrid ATM/FDDI/ISDN-based
digital voice/data communications protocol and the digital fiber
optics television network. It will run under several operating
systems including Windows NT 5.0.  It comes standard with an
internal FAX/satellite/common carrier management system,
digital VR (voice recognition), 32 megs of internal RAM for
DVI/HDGA as well as a 20 GB RW laser hard drive that
accesses all CDRW/CDV and HDCD formats.  Industry experts
also expect external analog as well as digital interface capability
with many of the new popular smart home LANS.   The system
effectively replaces the traditional phone, computer, TV and
stereo and merges them into one integrated component. All this
fits in a briefcase for under $10,000. I just might want to get one
of those. . .

    So what does this mean for developers? Well, when the
CA-Clipper/VO product line is finally available via a modular-
code static chip (which Computer Associates has in beta now),
only our imagination and creativity driven by consumer demand
will dictate the implications of this.


*** End of Article ***

Note: The first version of this appeared in April '89 in the
Sunshine Clipper, the second incarntation in the Nantucket
News in March/April 1990 issue.  The last one appeared in the
July 1991 edition of the Fathom, the Orlando Clipper User
Group newsletter. This is the latest and fourth incarnation for
which major changes were incurred due to the CA purchase and
other changes in current reality.


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