Software -
Following on from 6502 assembler and Commodore BASIC I did a lot of commercial work in Dbase, Foxbase and Clipper, all of which provided support for the Dbase language. This language provided conventional programming functions and procedures plus data manipulation functions and procedures so additional libraries were not required. Clipper allowed source code to be compiled into a 16bit executable which would run in a DOS box or Windows command box but which could be decompiled to recover the source code so was not as secure as software houses needed.
More recently, the Harbour compiler has appeared which is Clipper compatible but contains a two stage compiler. Stage 1 converts the Clipper source code into C source code and stage 2 compiles the C source code into a DOS or Windows (GUI) executable which is way more difficult to decompile to any form of useful source code. Harbour is currently available in a 32bit version and works with several C compilers as advised on its web site(s).
There are several strands (forks) of the Harbour compiler all of which are Clipper compatible but with additional functions and procedures to support the more modern programming requirements like graphics, Internet etc plus a graphical user interface (GUI). Some versions are free, some are chargeable.
See:
Harbour Mini GUI: URL: https://hmgs-
Xharbour: URL: https://xharbour.org/
Harbour (Forks): URL: URL: https://harbour.github.io/forks
Xailer: URL: https://www.xailer.com/wp/en/start/
Fivewin: URL: https://www.fivetechsoft.com/english/index.php
History: URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_(programming_language)
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