gt8963a@prism.gatech.EDU (MCCARTNEY,JEFFREY ELWOOD) (02/09/91)
I'm seriously considering jumping in with Clipper 5.0. I've used
it for a mild application and I like it. I'd appreciate hearing
from you on the negatives and any undocumented positives.
Is there a tradeoff because it is royalty free. Or is it as good
as the FOX products, for instance. I know about the installation
bugs, personally. I've heard the SET RELATION has problems, so I've
avoided it so far. And most importantly, what about the people behind
the product - are they sales or R&D dominated? Do they make their
release dates and how is their technical support.
I thank you.
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uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!gt8963a
Internet: gt8963a@prism.gatech.eduFelineGrace@cup.portal.com (Dana B Bourgeois) (02/10/91)
I was told by a tech support person (sorry, I didn't get the name or bug number - I didn't know it was important to do so) that the current version might not work properly over non-netware networks. The tech. said they are working on a bug-fix which would be available in a few weeks. That was two weeks ago. He suggested I experiment on my network using the networking example program Nantucket supplies with Clipper 5.0 to see if locking a remote *.dbf file returns a network error or not. On some networks apparently the error is the only result of trying to lock a file or record. I haven't tried this test yet because our network is still in the planning stages. I would love to hear from someone who uses Clipper (either summer-87 or 5.0) over an Ethernet using TCP/IP and PC-NFS. Or for that matter, over any network even a novelle one. That's the only negative comment I know about Clipper that might not be widely known. Dana Bourgeois @ cup.portal.com
tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan) (02/10/91)
In article <21611@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt8963a@prism.gatech.EDU (MCCARTNEY,JEFFREY ELWOOD) writes: >I'm seriously considering jumping in with Clipper 5.0. I've used >it for a mild application and I like it. I'd appreciate hearing >from you on the negatives and any undocumented positives. >Is there a tradeoff because it is royalty free. Or is it as good >as the FOX products, for instance. I know about the installation >bugs, personally. I've heard the SET RELATION has problems, so I've >avoided it so far. And most importantly, what about the people behind >the product - are they sales or R&D dominated? Do they make their >release dates and how is their technical support. > Jeffrey, Were your previous experiences with Clipper Summer '87 ? 5.0 has a few bugs (even Nantucket openly admits it) but the fix-disk is in Beta at the moment and is looking good. It seems to be a "tradition" with them in that they release versions too early and fix them up a few months later. They are definitely R&D dominated with most of the control centered around the development staff. Personally I prefer that over a sales driven organization. Ashton-Tate was driven by sales and wouldn't incorporate the simplest of improvements if they thought it could impact sales of the product... and the language languished. Personally I don't think there is a comparison between FoxPro and Clipper because they are designed for different audiences. I'm not a dot-prompter and I'm more interested in having things my way and not the way chosen by somebody in Ohio. Some people obviously prefer the Fox approach, in fact in total number probably more people prefer it. I would guess that a significant number of people would not migrate to Fox if Clipper ceased to be produced... I know that I wouldn't. As for tech support it's probably as good (or as bad) as anybody, harder than say tech support for WordPerfect because people not only call for clarification of suspected bugs but while they them on the phone would they mind programming their project for them also ??? It can be tricky. I have a slight bias but I used Clipper for years before I worked at Nantucket. tom leylan ex-Senior Systems Analyst / Nantucket Corporation