News from CIDC2019

Keynote Clarion is getting a restricted free community edition. There is a new thing called Anyscreen which runs a facimile of your app in a browser. Like H5 but better. And it was demonstrated. Based on @thin and JS. More to come!

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That Keynote, along with a couple of other videos are publicly available here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaJdF39MWY0vNRDubnfRb_A

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I agree. there were some interesting announcements. However, after another painfully delivered “keynote”, I don’t understand why Z even bothers. Better to simply post a paper notice outside the conference room than provide such an uninspired, “do I have to be up here” presentation. I understand many otherwise talented people are not good at selling their work. If that is the case, then Z should do what is done for all the other SV work - contract with someone who can present it with some enthusiasm instead.

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I listened to the Keynote.
Not impressed and just wondering what will happen and what will not happen.
Did not answer questions directly so that everyone understood and knows.

Just wondering which of H5 or AnyScreen will go the way of Clarion.Net.
My opinion is that Clarion.Net is a dead vaporware product, SV took our money years ago and we did not get what was promised. https://clarionsharp.com/blog/news-from-cidc-2017/

SV said on 14 June 2018, In addition we are also preparing for a final C10 release (https://clarionsharp.com/blog/a-quick-note/), well more than a year later and I am still waiting for this C10 Final release.

Most of us assumed that 64Bit data type and all the other nice stuff would be in C10, well what another surprise, it was not. In my opinion just a lot of excuses.
Now C12 is on the way, what is going to be in and what not.

I am a positive person but with SV I can’t stay positive.

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My opinion.

INTERESTING

  • Free Clarion version -
    finally; no template additions seems okay, but a full ODBC driver should be included; let the free users really see what they can do with existing SQL data.

  • AnyScreen -
    given the involvement of Thin@, the chance to actually get a working product is higher than previous SV great new ideas.

SMALL STEPS

  • Clarion 12 -
    as noted in your link to the SV CIDC 2017 blog, the most significant “upgrade” claim since … (choose your bit of Clarion history) clearly gets recycled with each announced version; nevertheless, Clarion does indeed continue to see improvements even if NOT most significant.

OUT OF TOUCH

  • Crowd Funding -
    in many ways, Clarion.Net did this before the term even existed; doubt seriously enough developers are willing to participate this time.
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Well worth watching the presentation from Marco Golem of Thin@ ie

It’s not captioned as such but it’s really all about the new resizer template and how it works with AnyScreen - and these a Q&A session at the end with questions about load balancing to increase the number of concurrent users of AnyScreen etc etc

Looks like a lot of work has been done on resizing to get things to use relative rather than absolute co-ordinates and enable customisation.

One thing I haven’t seen (yet) is how it copes with small screens ie mobile phones and orientation changes - still watching :slight_smile:

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This morning Z was talking about EMF support coming… but then in the Skype chat, Diego seemed to be saying that EMF support was vaporware and (other comments). I tried to get clarification but the conversation took a different turn. As such, it’s hard to say which of these comments was accurate (ie: EMF coming, or EMF is vapor). As with all software, it arrives when it arrives.

One outtake from the convo…

image

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For those of us not in Florida, what is the public Diego news?

Asked and not fully answered in my opinion, seems to me like a Duck and Dive answer.
Listen to the Keynote Address at ± 34min.

A few weeks ago, Diego’s LinkedIn indicated he no longer worked at SV. A few hours later, it was changed back. I guess they werent ready to reveal his departure. Z was asked during the keynote about it and was understandably mute about it (In the US, HR issues are not necessarily public info and saying the wrong thing about the wrong topic can get you in trouble).

I was told by someone at CIDC2019 that a Clarion shop called Z looking for a dev and Z pointed him at Diego - and that this info came directly from Z.

Also… Z mentioned using contractors for Clarion dev, outsourcing it, etc. This isn’t new. Clarion has been worked on by devs from all over the world for years. Many of us use devs that dont live where we work. The best people for the job rarely live next door:)

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So still at the rumors behind the news stage. That’s acceptable for now.

It’s pretty clear from Diego’s comments that he no longer works at SV. His LinkedIn says Palmer Capital.

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Interesting - Chuck Taylor (listed as Director of Technology at Palmer Capital Inc) was one of the attendees at CIDC 2015

https://www.cidc2015.com/WhosComing

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From Palmer Capital Inc’s website

https://www.palmerteam.com/pci_teammembers_op.html

Would be interested to also hear specifics on v12 that were shown/discussed.

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Robert has put a new entry onto the ClarionSharp Blog today giving details of the Community Edition

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Hi Mike, Just read - https://visual-integrity.com/emf/emf-format-overview/
EMF is the enhanced 32-bit metafile format while WMF is the well-established 16-bit format and excellent application support at all levels within the 16-bit and 32-bit Microsoft Windows platforms. Application support for reading EMF is not well established yet but is gaining momentum.

If you have a choice and do not require the advanced graphical features that EMF supports, using WMF as your input format is a safer choice?.

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Hi Mudirikwa,

You should note the date of the link you posted 20th March 2012
EMF file format was introduced as early as 1993 and is now the expected metafile format - WMF is depreciated - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Metafile and
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/win32/gdi/windows-format-metafiles?redirectedfrom=MSDN

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RZ indicated that EMF is the default file format for the C12 REPORT system, which has been completely reworked.

As a newbie, can someone please tell me what Diego’s contribution was to Clarion in the past? From the Palmer Capital page I get this:

For the past 16 years, Diego was a Lead Software Engineer, Architect, and Designer developing tools and applications

From his LinkedIn page Diego Borojovich - Palmer Capital Inc | LinkedIn I get the impression that he worked on the Clarion .Net and H5 stuff. Can anyone confirm this?

For further information and feedback from CIDC2019 I suggest the ClarionLive discussion

Some info just posted by Marko Golem in the Clarion11 newsgroup

Robert will announce all the details about AnyScreen when the release
is ready.

Let me write a few details we presented on the conference:

  • AnyScreen is a web hybrid app running in a browser environment on
    every javasript enabled device, using react framework. It can work just
    as mobile app “outside” of browser using web shortcuts on the mobile
    device

  • local mode (without AnyScreen server) for a single user testing is
    available for free in all Clarion versions (you start your app in a
    browser using a special run button)

  • entire AnyScreen engine is integrated in Clarion RTL. This means for
    AnyScreen to work no additional code needs to be added in the
    application (only the initialization code is required). All Clarion
    commands are automatically executed and rendered inside react renderer.
    This means all 3rd party dlls and libraries will work out of the box

  • the entire Clarion visual and execution logic is rendered inside
    react renderer (this includes all control types, images, icons, menu
    frames, drag & drop logic, edit-in-place logic, alert keys, shortcut
    keys etc…)

  • reports are executed on the server side and automatically converted
    to PDF files and then opened as PDF files on the client side. The PDF
    generation can be done using server side PDF printer or with integrated
    quick pdf library

  • The only thing not working are OCX object that draw directly to the
    window area. The OCX will draw objects on the server side but those
    objects will not be visible in browser environment on the client side.
    OCX objects that do not draw on window area will work properly.

  • additional functions are available (such as file download or file
    upload)

  • there is an integrated AnyService app (just for windows platform atm)
    that installs directly from web environment on the client pc. This
    service allows AnyScreen to execute additional shell commands from
    browser sandbox. Specifically here, it will allow printing to POS
    printers using cmd commands or using scanner software or client side
    utilities…

  • server installation will be charged as subscription license per
    developer. Server will support from 175 up to 200 concurent sessions.
    It supports load balancing and fail recovery

  • there is an additional extension that acts as resizer and will allow
    absolute cordinate scaling for your apps to all the device sizes. This
    extension will be charged extra

Or does it require stuff like JAVA?

It requires a javascript enabled device. There is no client
installation beside opening the server page in the browser. You can
then run that page as mobile desktop shortcut on any device acting as
an mobile app.

We announced release sometime in November. Robert Z. will announce it
when the time is right.

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