Harbour (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:21, 15 August 2008

Revision as of 12:40, 27 August 2008

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'''Harbour''' is a modern, fast, multiplatform language , it is a [[open source]] [[cross-platform]] clipper compiler which runs on many operating systems. (DOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux (32, 64), Unix (32, 64), Mac OS X, Windows CE, Pocket PC).

Harbour license is GPL with an exception supporting commercial applications, so you can distribute commercial application made with Harbour.

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Under Linux and Window Mobile , Clipper source code can be compiled with Harbour with a little adaptation.

Harbour use cC compiler Borland C++, Microsoft Visual C++ (6,7,8 ), Minigw32MinGW, Watcom C.

Harbour offering multiple GT (Graphic Terminals), including console drivers, and Hybrid Console/GUIs, such as GTWvt, and GTWvg.

Harbour support external GUIs (free such as HWGui, MiniGUI and commercial, such as FiveWin, Xailer ),

Harbour is 100% Clipper backward compatible and supports many language syntax extensions, greatly extended run-time libraries such as OLE, ODBC, MySQL, PostgreSQL, TIpt, TXml, RegEx, HbZip, xbScript and extensive third party support.

Harbour extends the Clipper Replaceable Database Drivers (RDD) approach. It offers multiple RDDs such as DBF, DBFNTX, DBFCDX, DBFDBT, and DBFFPT. In xHarbourHarbour multiple RDDs can be used in a single application, and new logical RDDs can be defined from combination of other RDD. The RDD architecture allows for inheritance, so that a given RDD may extend the functionality of other existing RDD(s). 3rd party RDDs, like RDDSQL, RDDSIX, RMDBFCDX, Advantage Database Server, and Mediator exemplify some of the RDD architecture features.

Harbour also offers ODBC support be means of an OOP syntax, and ADO support by means of OLE.

Macro Operator (runtime compiler)

One of the most powerful features of the xBase languages is the MACRO Operator '&'. xHarbourHarbour's implementation of the Macro Operator allows for runtime compilation of any valid xHarbourHarbour expression. Such compiled expression may be used as a VALUE, i.e. the right side of an Assignment, but more interestingly, such compiled expression may be used to resolve the LEFT side of an assignment, i.e. PRIVATE, or PUBLIC variables, or Databasedatabase FIELD.

Additionally the Macro Operator may compile and execute function calls, complete assignments, or even list of arguments, and the result of the macro may be used to resolve any of the above contexts in the compiled application. IOW, any xHarbourHarbour application may be extended, and/or modified in runtime, to compile and execute additional code on demand.

Object Oriented Programming. Programming in an OOP style is a broader issue than a specific library or a specific interface. But OOP programming is something many Clipper programmers have come to expect. CA-Clipper 5.2 and especially 5.3 added a number of base classes, and a matching OOP syntax. Libraries such as CLASSy, Fivewin, Clip4Win, and TopClass provide

Harbour have OOP extensions with full inheritance and class declaration. basedBased on Classy syntax , Harbour follows suit in providing a full collection of commands for declaration of classes, inheritance, and so on. The syntax may not wind up being identical with that in the tool you previously used, but it should be possible to maintain your old Clipper class hierarchy with minimal changes to source code.

==Xharbour comparison==

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Harbour project don’t want unusable extension if it break Clipper compatibility.

In xharbourxHarbour the Clipper behavior was mixed with some xHarbour extensions and the debug process is much harder then it should be...

Harbour want made a clear separation and keeping the code clean is important

Finally Harbour have made most of important modifi decision to rewrite gtGT and multithread for cover all foundation need.