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The CIDC 2017 schedule has been posted. Sessions include: A preview of Clarion 11 Two H5 sessions A number of SQL topics including conversions, debugging, profiling, etc. A call to Code Craftsmanship Database backup, restore and integrity Template writing Home automation and Amazon Echo Google analytics in desktop apps and much more, including third party presentations and of course two days of exceptional NetTalk training by CapeSoft. Check out the full schedule here. https://www.cidc2017.…

CIDC 2017 is on! https://www.cidc2017.com Register by March 31 and save $300 https://www.cidc2017.com/pricing.htm on the conference registration, or $550 https://www.cidc2017.com/pricing.htm on both the conference and the training.  Another good reason to register early - get your room at the Rosen! While there are other hotels nearby, there's nothing quite like staying on site.  See you in Florida!

I suppose it's always dangerous to say something's permanent, especially when talking about technology, but for the foreseeable future I've moved ClarionMag to this site, clarionmag.jira.com.  Why here? For some years now I've used Atlassian's Confluence content management https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence system to deliver Clarion Magazine. It's a terrific platform - I love it and recommend it to anyone looking for a powerful and easy to use CMS.…

It's hard for me to imagine a Clarion developer who hasn't heard of Russ Eggen. A Clarion user for 30 years, he was both a consultant and an instructor for Topspeed Corporation. He was also a founding member of SoftVelocity when that company formed in 2000. He left SoftVelocity the following year to start his own company, RadFusion Inc.  Russ was a tireless Clarion advocate who helped many Clarion developers improve their skills. He taught numerous classes,…

In Part 1 https://www.clarionmag.com/display/clarion/Creating+a+feature+toggle+library%2C+part+1 Dave Harms introduced the idea of a feature toggle library, and wrote that the starting point for Clarion development should not be the data dictionary. In many cases the data dictionary comes at the very end of the process. But If the data dictionary doesn't come first, what does? There are a lot of different answers to that question, depending on what kind of application you're developing,…

What do you do when a customer requests a change or a new feature in your product that only applies to that one customer? Broadly speaking, you have two options: a feature branch or a feature toggle, and for most situations feature toggles win hands down. But feature toggles can get complex - does the feature toggle apply only at startup, or can it be changed at runtime? Does it apply to everyone or only certain users?…

I've added another Clarion code smell to the list: file aliases. Yes, there are times when you need them, but there's also a good chance they're the wrong answer to the problem you're trying to solve.  https://www.clarionmag.com/display/clarion/Avoiding+code+smell%2C+updated+with+selected+new+%28that+is%2C+old%29+fragrances#aliases

He's old. He's grouchy. He's hard of hearing and not wearing his hearing aids. And. For a limited time, he's back.

Rick Smith has started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise $12,000 for a cancer treatment for Russ Eggen that isn't covered by Russ's health insurance. Read more about it and contribute here! https://www.gofundme.com/2apu69r4 You probably don't need any incentive to give Russ a hand, but here are some anyway: For each qualifying donation Pratik Patel will provide a copy of his CYA IDE tool. CYA exports a TXA of your app every time you build, so it Covers Your App.…

SoftVelocity has released a new H5 AppBroker to go along with the H5 support in the latest Clarion 10 EE release. H5 uses the long-standing AppBroker product combined with Bootstrap to convert standard Clarion apps to web apps. Because Bootstrap is a response web framework, Clarion apps with the H5 treatment can be viewed on mobile as well as desktop devices. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLweTGzUgLC-QedaF6PtQD0vjh5oY2QMvQ More to come....

Does your code give off the sweet fragrance of a rose garden? Perhaps it's closer to the other end of the aromatic spectrum. Check out our updated Clarion-specific list of common code smells. 

So you're running Clarion on a solid state drive and performance is terrific. But you've heard those rumors about how it's possible to wear out SSDs with too many writes. Should you worry? Dave Harms crunches the numbers and comes up with a surprising result. Try out the spreadsheet and see how long your SSD will last. 

The office will be closed from March 23-31 but I will be checking email periodically. Please allow several days for subscriptions to be processed. Dave Harms Publisher

Calling .NET code from Clarion doesn't have to be complicated or nerve-wracking, especially if you're passing and returning integers and/or string data. As Bill Florek shows, all you really need is a third party library for your .NET assembly and an updated LibMaker courtesy of Brahn Patridge.

A first cut of the rebuilt ClarionMag archive http://archive.clarionmag.com/ is online. There's still lots of work to be done, but you can log in, and search for and read articles. Other links do not yet work, and the look and feel is still pretty raw.