Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ 2.31) about CA-Clipper and CA-Visual Objects

copyright 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 by Mark W. Schumann, clipper@underflap.com

1. Legal Hoohah

• 1.1 Copyright
• 1.2 License
• 1.3 Warranty Disclaimer (to keep my lawyer happy)

2. About the FAQs

• 2.1 Changes to the FAQ in 2.31
• 2.2 Major Changes to the FAQ in 2.30
• 2.3 Major Changes to the FAQ in 2.20
• 2.4 Major Changes to the FAQ up to 2.00
• 2.5 Things left to do

3. About Clipper and Visual Objects

• 3.1 What is Clipper?
• 3.2 Isn't Clipper obsolete?
• 3.3 What is CA-Visual Objects?
• 3.4 What is the current release of CA-Clipper?
• 3.5 What is the current release of CA-Visual Objects?
• 3.6 How do I get CA-Clipper 5.3?
• 3.7 How do I get the CA-Clipper 5.2e and/or 5.3a patches?

4. Licensing and use of Clipper and Visual Objects

• 4.1 We're thinking of leaving the CA-supplied DBU utility on our
• 4.2 My company wants to save money by putting our three CA-Clipper
• 4.3 Does CA offer site licenses for CA-Clipper?

5. Clipper programming issues

• 5.1 I keep getting financial arithmetic results that don't add up
• 5.2 Why is "ABCDEF" = "ABC" turning up TRUE in my code?
• 5.3 What is "Internal Error 667" and what can I do about it?
• 5.4 What is "Internal Error 1210" and what can I do about it?
• 5.5 What is "Internal Error 5333" and what can I do about it?
• 5.6 What is an "Unrecoverable Error 650: Processor Stack Fault"?
• 5.7 What is "runtime error R6003"?
• 5.8 What is "internal error 8002"?
• 5.9 What about the other "Internal Errors"?

6. Support and corporate issues

• 6.1 Is it true that Nantucket, the original Clipper
• 6.2 Where can I get technical support for CA-Clipper?
• 6.3 Where can I get technical support for CA-Visual Objects?
• 6.4 Where can I buy CA-Clipper, CA-Visual Objects,
• 6.5 Where can I get a copy of Clipper Summer '87? Any other versions prior to 5.3?

7. Third-party sources

• 7.1 Is there a free library for Clipper developers?

8. Programming and design issues

• 8.1 What are LOCAL variables and why do I care?
• 8.2 What are STATIC variables and why do I care?
• 8.3 How do I switch all my PUBLICs to STATICs?
• 8.4 What are the ground rules for using LOCALs and STATICs?
• 8.5 What are INIT and EXIT procedures? Why do I care?
• 8.6 What are the ANNOUNCE and REQUEST statements?
• 8.7 Is it more efficient to use one multi-dimensional array or
• 8.8 What is the meaning of the compiler warning "Ambiguous
• 8.9 I am getting lockups running my CA-Clipper application under
• 8.10 Can you combine Borland C/C++ or Turbo C/C++ code with your
• 8.11 Is there a way to recompile or relink the standard CA-Clipper
• 8.12 How about C++?
• 8.13 How do I compile Microsoft C 5.1 code?
• 8.14 What about Microsoft C 6.0? And later?
• 8.15 Can you use Borland's Turbo Debugger with the embedded C and assembler
• 8.16 I want to write a C function that concatenates a list of
• 8.17 I want to call my C or assembler function with a reference
• 8.18 How do I call CA-Clipper code from C? Can this even be done?

9. Clipper in other environments

• 9.1 How do I port my existing CA-Clipper code to a Unix system?
• 9.2 I want to use .DBF files in my C program. How?
• 9.3 I want to read and write files on my IBM minicomputer(s): a
• 9.4 What's the big deal about this FoxPro Rushmore Technology?
• 9.5 Someone said I could access FoxPro-type indices. What
• 9.6 How do I dial a modem from within a CA-Clipper application?
• 9.7 Why am I getting lots of index corruption on Windows NT and later

10. The year 2000

• 10.1 Is A.D. 2000 a leap year?
• 10.2 Does Clipper take into account the end of the millenium?

11. Online resources for Clipperheads

• 11.1 Are there any other FAQs for Clipperheads?
• 11.2 What bulletin boards are available for CA-Clipper developers?
• 11.3 What about Compuserve?
• 11.4 How do I email a Compuserve user from Internet?
• 11.5 Is there a mailing list for CA-Clipper users on the
• 11.6 Are there Usenet newsgroups?
• 11.7 What is Client Care?
• 11.8 Clipper-related FTP and WWW sites

12. Everything else

• 12.1 Can DBF-type files be used in a client-server environment?
• 12.2 When should you use the //badcache command-line switch?
• 12.3 How do I get more free memory for my DOS RUN commands?
• 12.4 What's the format of a Clipper .dbf file?
• 12.5 How do I create my own .LIB files?
• 12.6 How do I keep TBrowse from messing up the record pointer?
• 12.7 Clipper and Novell's Transaction Tracking System