Theoretically, we have to take company holidays (until week 2), on the other hand, a project is supposed to be converted to 64bit in week 3 - don’t they all have them anymore? Actually, I’m basically retired, but I don’t want to leave my employees out in the cold now. That’s just the way it is - does anyone remember MS-DOS?
… and sry - I don’t know. For me 32 (wx too) is more stable than 64 ,
but that’s how they sell it and that’s what customers believe
I always hoped, or had always hoped, that Bruce would take over everything… We would then have the most powerful development environment ever
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Tell them it’s coming in version 12a.
I obviously don’t understand the logic or politics of the situation.
I feel your sales people need a kick up the rear if they are promising things that you cannot deliver (and presumably they are not consulting with the developers first).
Maybe you can point out that your software runs fine on Windows 11 64 bit operating system or whatever. If you had said you needed 64 bit to interact with some other software that was not available in 32 bit and could not work with your 32 bit Clarion app then that might be a reason to rewrite if that other software really was essential. But you seem to be saying there is no reason or requirement for 64 bit so it seems ridiculous to rewrite 40 apps in some other language (and especially to attempt to do so in a very short time). Unless your apps are very simple browse/forms I think you are likely to just introduce bugs or accidentally leave out functionality that the users require and basically just annoy your clients.
I would think transferring the data over would be the easy part. Just export to csv or JSON or some other simple format that both languages can easily access.
Rather than data conversion, it is all the years of knowledge that are built into your code base that I would be concerned about.
I have probably mentioned this classic article from 2000 before, but it is worth mentioning it again in case you haven’t seen it:
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Conversion to Wx, or anything else, will be a 12 Month+ exersize and that would basically get to where you are now, but with more bugs.
Porting is difficult at best, and it’s the little things that you haven’t thought of that will take the time.
Like Geoff said, there’s a lot of business intelligence in your apps, and that will NEVER port easily.
It took me 18 month to bring an old Clarion 1.5 system into C9 and change from Clarion to ABC templates. It’s a hard slog.
There will also be some problems when 64bit does come along because the windows APIs that an amount of code depends on will also change. So it will require effort anyway.
Your better plan to to yell at sales and let them know they got it wrong. That you run on 64b OS and that improvements are coming.
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CSV, Json…
Of course it’s not particularly complicated from a technical point of view, but it’s a lot of work. For me, Wolfgang’s approach is the better way to automate it somewhat. I have developed a prototype that generates the corresponding HFSQL structure from the (Clarion) file declaration. Actually works so far - apart from the combined keys - for “home use”. It would be nice if you could combine both approaches…
LOL!!! We are dealing with Clarion & SV on this site.
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“Of course it’s not particularly complicated from a technical point of view, but it’s a lot of work. For me, Wolfgang’s approach is the better way to automate it somewhat. I have developed a prototype that generates the corresponding HFSQL structure from the (Clarion) file declaration. Actually works so far - apart from the combined keys - for “home use”. It would be nice if you could combine both approaches…”
If you please have a moment, and you wish, I would like to have a conversation about a converting a DCT clarion declaration to a corresponding HFSQL declaration.
Please PM me on Skype, LinkedIn, or use the email
in my GitHub repo at [email protected]
Thank you.
Regards,
Roberto Artigas
That’s not how it works. 16bit applications are in the NE (New Executable) format, 32bit & 64bit applications are in the PE (Portable Executable) format. The OS has different mechanism for loading each one, so you don’t convert from one to the other you recompile the src code and generate a different binary image.
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I have a vague recollection of someone doing 16–>32 thunking back in the 90s before 32-bit Clarion. I think it was one of the guys named Nigel, but not sure which one. It also involved message pumps.
NE format and PE format are just different formats. Transcribing from NE to PE with 16bit 2byte words/shorts being replaced with 32bit 4byte dword/long is the least that needs to be done. The code will stay the same.
Et voila you have your 32bit code.
Edit.
Pre internet, I used to edit command.com using the hex editor in pc tools, so I know it can be done. Funnily enough thats where I first encountered a tsr, the pc speaker would squawk to life sounding like the local taxi company radio was being picked up by the computer. It was lost on so many but I found it funny!
Does spy++ work on wx?
I havent used wx since ver13 or 14.
Can you write a version of spy++ that will explore your apps like a test automation tool, logging all the changes and then port that data into a wx app?
Absolutely - and that’s just a start.
Who’s in charge? Sounds like sales needs a reminder.
For sure not in 3 months, probably not in 2025.
Kind regards,
Jorge Lavera
MSSQL for a DB. I’ve worked with others, but I’ve had the least trouble with it. And there are other people that can take over at the client’s site for the daily stuff
I like the Clarion language, but I stopped at Ver 9 and dot nyet. I have clients that still love the programs I’ve done and still want new things so I still work in it.
The language I really like, though, is Wx and it’s IDE.
I’m not sure of Spy’s abilities so I don’t think itis needed in Wx as the IDE and SCM take care monitoring changes and searching through code.
It does things like when you change the name of a variable, it will ask if you want to change it everywhere it is used as a variable.
Unless WX have a text based import export facility like the txa file, the problem with WX is there is no easy way to automate the import.
Spy++ can enumerate the windows and controls but then additional code is needed to take control of the mouse and keyboard to copy the clarion settings and layouts into wx, in effect replacing the wx programmer.
Spy++ sounds too good. Maybe it could generate a script from the windows and controls and then . . .
. . . Enter - Macro Express! 
It was one of my biggest issues about Wx - there is no text output or import. I felt very insecure when I started not having a TXA to fall back on or to alter. So far, knock wood, I have not had a situation that required that.