Welcome and FAQ

X-No-Archive: Yes

Welcome to comp.lang.xharbour!

This newsgroup is for discussion of topics, news, and material
related to the xHarbour / Harbour variant of the xBase compiled
language, formerly known as Clipper. Our charter is here:
http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.p...rbour-announce

This is an unmoderated newsgroup, which means that we trust one
another to be civil and stay on topic. There are general posting
guidelines posted several places on the internet, including:
http://www.pcguide.com/res/links/use...delines-c.html
(... which loads some ugly code fragments, so alternates will be
welcome)

Posts, once made, are part of a permanent record. There is really
no way to recall or remove posts, and actually succeed in
removing it from all servers.

Clipper is not "slackware", and is still available for sale here:
http://www.grafxsoft.com/clipper.htm

Some Clipper code, and updates are here:
http://www.the-oasis.net/
.... which includes some source code that may still be usable
under (x)Harbour.

Harbour is available here:
http://www.harbour-project.org/

xHarbour is an extended version of Harbour, started not in spite
of Harbour, but to allow needed and useful extensions to the base
language. xHarbour includes much of the Clipper Tools and Classy
libraries, as well as allowing full extensibility for which
Clipper was well known.

Additionally some effort and expense has gone into building the
documentation database that will allow new programmers to learn
this very powerful language. What is best of all, is native
Windows and Linux applications are the product of a successful
compilation of (essentially) Clipper code.

Free xHarbour is located here:
http://www.xharbour.org/
.... this provides the basic language, a free compiler and linker,
as well as 3rd party contributions to the language, extending the
range of databases it can handle (ADS, Firebird, MySQL, and
pgSQL), the ability to work with ZIP and PDF files, the ability
to implement a standard Windows GUI (a few choices of libs),
and even functions that allow administering Windows resources.

Commercial xHarbour is located here:
http://www.xharbour.com/
.... this provides access to a broader range of functions, more
generic SQL, allow you to create your own OLE server, and much
more. Included is a Windows Visual Builder, and available for
Windows is Visual xHarbour... a tool for building GUI screens,
like every other modern language.

If you have a bug report, the best place to do this is here:
http://www.xHarbour.com/BugReporter

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: How do I produce an executable file with the free version of
xHarbour?
A: {"answers welcome"}

Q: How do I produce an executable file with the commercial
version of xHarbour?
A: It is best to review the documentation that comes with your
purchase. The Visual Builder allows you to construct a project,
and build your application from within Windows. Additionally,
there is a command line interface as well, which could be invoked
by something as simple as:
xbuildw sourcefile.prg source2.prg ...

Q: I used a third party library in my Clipper program (or
assembly language source code), and I want to use it in xHarbour.
Is this possible?
A: In general, no. Clipper produced 16-bit DOS executables, and
xHarbour produces 32-bit or 64-bit Windows or Linux applications.
The internals are different, and the operating systems do not
have the application interface used by DOS.

Q: I want to discuss a problem I am having with some of my code.
What do I need to do?
A: The best thing to do is to provide a reduced, self-contained
example that exhibits the behavior. If it cannot be included as
part of the text of your post, then you will need to attach the
code, and include alt.binaries.programming along with
comp.lang.xharbour on the newsgroup list. Lastly, include
the versions of the operating system, complier, and xHarbour
compiler used to cause this behavior.

The wiki entry for xHarbour starts here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHarbour

[I'd like to say something about xHarbour sites in other
languages here, help?]

If you have corrections or additions to this Welcome message,
please
contact its editor, David Smith at: dlzc AT aol DOT com
.... or right here in the group!