If you thought you knew the limits of Clarion take a look at these amazing projects by one of my customers – William Martin of Malta. William can be contacted on wpunitram at yahoo dot com
Rubik Cube LEGO Clarion Robot
Clarion Robot solving Rubik’s Cube using Lego parts some electronic boards to control one stepper motor one servo motor and two electric motors. The program to solve the cube was written in Clarion. It takes approximately just 40 seconds for the computer to solve the cube.
Piano LEGO Robot
A robot that plays the piano
Android LEGO Robot Realtime Weatherman
An android LEGO robot that can tell the current weather of any location
9-Letter Word LEGO Robot
Solving the 9-Letter Word puzzle using LEGO parts
Summary of the Clarion System
Clarion is a commercial, proprietary, 4GL (Fourth Generation Language) programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) from SoftVelocity used to create database applications. It is best known for its data-centric design philosophy and capabilities, allowing developers to build applications rapidly by defining the data structures and the relationships between them.
Here’s a summary:
1. History: Introduced in the 1980s, Clarion has undergone various changes and improvements over the decades. Its origins lie in the DOS era, but it has evolved to support modern Windows applications.
2. Data-centric Development: One of Clarion’s hallmarks is its data-centric approach. Developers begin by defining data structures (tables). The system can then auto-generate large portions of the application code based on these structures.
3. Template-driven: Clarion uses templates to expedite development. Once you’ve defined your data, you can apply templates to create windows, forms, and reports. These templates can be customized and extended as needed.
4. Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Clarion offers a comprehensive IDE which includes a database designer, screen designer, report designer, and more. It supports both procedural and object-oriented programming.
5. Database Support: Clarion applications can connect to a variety of databases, both SQL-based and ISAM. The native Clarion language also includes its own database format, known as TPS (TopSpeed).
6. Extensions and Libraries: Over time, a community of developers has built a range of third-party libraries, templates, and extensions to enhance the capabilities of Clarion.
7. Deployment: Applications developed in Clarion can be compiled into standalone executables, which makes deployment and distribution straightforward.
8. Compatibility: While Clarion has evolved over the years, SoftVelocity has generally maintained backward compatibility, meaning older Clarion applications can often be updated to run on newer versions of the system with minimal changes.
9. Community: Though perhaps not as vast as communities for some other development platforms, the Clarion community is known for being dedicated and supportive. There are forums, user groups, and other resources available for developers.
In summary, Clarion stands out for its rapid, data-centric application development capabilities.