CIDC 2013 Keynote address - Robert Zaunere & Diego Borojovich

Owned by David Harms
Last updated: Oct 01, 2013
2 min read

SoftVelocity's Bob Zaunere kicked off CIDC 2013 by talking about change in the industry, and how Clarion has moved from ISAM to SQL and beyond. There's a heightened emphasis on mobile development, and products like JQuery and JQuery Mobile are leading the way. 

What SoftVelocity got right: 

  • backward compatibility
  • migration between versions of Clarion and Windows

What SoftVelocity got wrong

  • The threaded MDI bug
  • Buying into MS .NET hype. 

Bob made the point that SoftVelocity is one of the few companies to have WinForms and Compact Framework designers.

Although following the .NET path has brought problems, Clarion# is still a viable product. It gives you the ability to share data files, use the same Clarion language, interface with .NET from Win32.

Bob touched on SoftVelocity's works in progress:

  • re-architecting the MDI handling
  • the internal report engine
  • integrate touch into Accept loop
  • ASP.NET, PHP, H5 + JQuery Mobile - H5 is like Internet Connect but using JQuery for the communication between client and server. 
  • 64 bit numbers - a step toward full 64 bit support
  • Moving Clarion# and the IDE to .Net 4.x
  • Planning on a new WebControl for Win32 - this also opens up web APIs via JavaScript
  • List control UI
  • Long term project - 64 bit compiler/RTL/drivers

H5 and ASP.Net templates (written in T4) will be going up on GitHub and will be open to community contributions

Z asks: What do you need most in Clarion? What single most important thing?

Diego's tour of C9

Diego talked about new features in the IDE, the RTL, drivers, new classes. 

There is a new SourceClass template you can use to create classes inside APPs, so they're listed in the tree the way procedures are. 

There is a new UserControl template you can use to create components that can be reused.

New classes:

  • JSON class to generate JSON arrays and objects
  • System.String
  • System.IO
  • The SQL class to execute scripts

And of course there is the new SQLite driver. 

Diego took us on a our of new features including IDE improvements. Prototypes and parameters are now back on the same tab. There is a full spectrum color picker; template-specific search options (look for declarations, etc); search in current document directory; themes; locator improvements

Some of Deigo's favorites:

  • caching of ABC headers for the solution
  • reworked batch building
  • DCT search - this is pretty cool as it allows you to do boolean searching (AND/OR) through the dictionary, looking for terms in fields, files, keys, relations, any aspect of the dictionary even comments and modifications 
  • the new QuickView

Diego went through the proper use of the generate and build buttons including the new build solution button. 

EE allows circular references; PE does not. 

And SoftVelocity has a FaceBook page. 

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