dCL1P Review

Continued from Page 5.

executed. All that has to be done

is to type command code and see

if it works as expected. If not, try

a variation of the same com-

mand. The usefulness of this

type of environment should be

obvious. By allowing experimen-

tation with “new” functions,

without the necessity of develop-

ing specialty code programs, the

need to edit, link, and “then” run

the project is dramatically by-

passed. Results are almost

instantaneous!

The reason behind this effect is

the fact that dClip doesn’t link

objects in the traditional sense. It

uses technology which dynami-

cally binds the object files as they

are read in. The major advantage

to this approach is speed. The

only drawback, in my opinion, is

that an object file cannot be

greater than 64K. This problem

is somewhat reduced by allowing

for the creation of dynamic

libraries, via an enclosed utility

program supplied by the author.

Up to 10 simultaneous libraries

can be attached to any single

application. dClip even has a

built-in editor to help in the

development of this source code.

“Okay,” you say, “sounds

interesting, but, I want to use my

editor, not someone else’s.”

The product attempts to take the

programmer’s individual prefer-

ences into account. dClip has the

capability to allow the user to

call up their own editor, utilize it

and then return to the dClip

environment when finished. This

editing feature is extremely

useful. For example, if the editor

has a command line option for

placement of the cursor on a

specific line and if a mistake

occurs, dClip can load the source

code, utilizing your editor, and

place you on the line in which

the error occurred.

Additional virtues of the soft-

ware include the make feature,

which checks to see which tiles

have been modified and then

automatically recompiles and

readies them for use; ease of

program integration into your

own custom application, by

means of the dClip function

library included at no additional

cost; and, third party support for

several major third party libraries

present in today’s marketplace.

Described above are some of the

bare basics included in this

application, but there are several

other features I’d like to briefly

review. Always available is an on-

line help system, which assists

not only with dClip commands,

but with Clipper commands as

well. I have personally found this

reference scheme of major

benefit in providing easily

available syntax support, espe-

cially in the case of commands

which are infrequently used. The

HELP mode can be entered

simply by typing “help” or “help

<command>.” The flexibility of

the system is demonstrated in the

ease in which it can be modified

to allow the programmer to add

individualized topics and notes

directly into the help module.

dClip can obtain access to other

programs and utilities in two

ways. One method is through

means of the DOS GATEWAY,

an on-line menu item, which is

executed by typing, “GATE-

WAY" (minus the quotes) at the

dot prompt. You are then

presented with a new menu

which can be customized to give

ready access to the programs and

applications that you commonly

use. The alternative route is

through “mapping dos commands

to the dot prompt.” With this

technique, you can create an

alias for the program to be

activated. The alias is then

placed, with the startup parame-

ters, into the dClip configuration

file called DCLIP.SYS. An

example of this might be:

COMMAND=WS,WS,128,E:

This is a command sequence

which can be used to start a

Wordstar word processor pro-

gram. The first parameter is the

alias, recognized by dClip follow-

ing programmer input, following

this is the DOS command to

invoke the executable file, the

third entry defines the amount of

RAM needed in order to run the

word processing program and

finally “E:” which represents the

temporary swap disk for utiliza-

tion. Other configuration para-

meters which can be contained

within the DCLIP.SYS file are

search paths, subdirectory

information (telling the make

utility where to put the *.obj

files), the type of prompt to use

within the interactive environ-

ment, plus a multiplicity of

additional customization options.

“What about the output capabili-

ties of this program?” Okay, let’s

talk about dClip’s printer man-

ager. The manager maintains a

database of approximately 288

printer codes, completely set-up

and ready to go, as well as a

spool command for each printer

and print output direction. This

printer/output procedure espe-

cially shines in a network envi-

ronment. Moreover, a full report

and label form editor are also

included to assist in smoothly

creating output from within the

software application.

A powerful source-level debug-

ger is embedded in the program,

Continued on Page 7

The Newsletter of the Dbase Language Professional Developers Group, September 1990

Page 6