Is Duke Accounting Software still available? (Or any competent accounting software written in Clarion?
I can’t speak to the competency of the software, as I haven’t seen it. But there’s “RAD Accounting”. Mitten Software Store
I have a vague recollection that Earl Coker was selling the Duke shells, but not sure if anyone took that over after he passed away.
Earl left them to Bo. Bo sold them to an individual before he passed. Do not recall the name of the company. He had a website for a while, then he disappeared. Will all the accounting stuff available, Quickbooks, Xero, et all, it might not have made sense to continue as a vendor. A while back, I worked with copies for RAD, Duke, and a few others. Duke was the best bet for what I wanted to do. You will have to work with whatever shell you buy to customize for what you need.
I could not find the website for the Duke shells. Out of luck there. The RAD is decent as far as source code, but you still will have to do work to get it to work to accomplish what you want.
Your best bet at this time is to use an established vendor and use something like Noyantis Chilkat to interface from Clarion to the vendor. Talk to Mr. Andy, he can point you the accounting packages that his Chilkat product interfaces to. Website at https://noyantis.com/product/chilkat/
Do realize that the Duke shells are about 20+ years old. And a lot of software has been created since then. It takes a bit of work to combine all the different dictionaries into one and get everything to function of that one dictionary. Been there, done that. And the duke shells had the advantage of having been worked by a couple of programmers that dealt with CPA’s.
maybe this:
http://clarionappshells.com/derived-shells.html
These DerivedShellTM products have been in use for many years and were originally developed by KwikSYSTEMSTM ASSOCIATES from the original shells of G. W. Duke and are now being maintained, supported, and further enhanced by F-One Computer Help Corp .
(I have never used it myself)
Thanks for the reply. I read the description. I understand how accounting works for both 2-sided and 4-sided, so if something is screwy I’ll be able to detect and correct it. I’d guess I won’t find much there. I don’t know how understandable the code will be, but I’d guess if Clarion programmer wrote it that understands accounting, and uses Clarion templates and not an inconsistent rats nest that is the result of hand coding everything, I should be able to catch on to his thought train. Basic GAAP and reports haven’t changed in longer than anyone has been programming in Clarion. The changes that may not be there are account associations to aid in transaction efficiency and error prevention, payroll rules, and bank and credit card importing. It says the code is good through Clarion 6.
PS: I just detected that RAD is not Duke, but thanks anyway. I don’t know the differences and which one would be better.
Interesting! It would be nice to know what happened to the shells and if they are available anywhere.
Thanks! I visited their site. At 3K one needs to spend a little more time researching before rolling the dice.
yes agreed!
Maybe check out their basic bundles as they are cheaper. Or go with the Mitten stuff that is only $99. It all depends if they will do what you want and save you many hours of work, or if they are buggy and you spend as much time debugging and tearing out your hair as you would have if you had started with a clean slate. You really need someone who has used them to share their experience.
Thank you for finding the Derived shells. That was the individual that bought the Duke shells from Bo. The shells were what could be originally from gotten Duke. Bo had them up to a point converted to MS-SQL and the individual bought them at that point. Mr. Bo did not want to continue with the development at that time. The code was understandable at the point that this individual bought it, and he has by his statements “improved” it some.
Something being better than something else, is a subjective decision based on whatever parameters are being considered. I have looked at the code for both RAD and Duke. An at the time I chose Duke since it was more complete.
Your choice might be different. Good luck with it.
After re-reading the website and seeing what he has done with items, if I had a need for it, and after having worked with the original duke shells and Bo’s source code, I would choose to to purchase them again. The code is understandable from my perspective. But that does not mean much. And there is a lot of code in the complete package. The fact that it is one dictionary now makes it easier to deal with.
Hi IT_Architect Jack
I have some Clarion accounting software that maybe of your interest.