Here's a thorny one. A friend of mine who was a Clipper programmer died 
last year. He wrote an accounting program (in S'87, I think) and as yet, 
no one has found the source code. Canada is about to change its GST rate 
from 6% to 5% and there are still a couple of people who use this 
system. It seems unbelievable but he hard coded the tax rate into the 
program. I figured that I might be able to edit the exe with a hex 
editor and change it but searching for .06 or 06 did not produce any 
useful results. The file is not compressed in any way and I can read 
lots of the text in the program (including references to GST). It 
occurred to me that maybe he is assigning the value to a variable in the 
program and, because it's a number, it's not really 06 (or .06. or 1.06) 
that I'm looking for.
Does anyone have any clues on how I might narrow the search?
Thanks for any suggestions
Garry

hi,

> He wrote an accounting program (in S'87, I think) and as yet, no one has 
> found the source code.

try Google : "Clipper decompiler S87"

greetings by OHR
Jimmy

Hello Garry,

>Here's a thorny one. A friend of mine who was a Clipper programmer died 
>last year. He wrote an accounting program (in S'87, I think) and as yet, 
>no one has found the source code. Canada is about to change its GST rate 
>from 6% to 5% and there are still a couple of people who use this 
>system. It seems unbelievable but he hard coded the tax rate into the 
>program. I figured that I might be able to edit the exe with a hex 
>editor and change it but searching for .06 or 06 did not produce any 
>useful results. The file is not compressed in any way and I can read 
>lots of the text in the program (including references to GST). It 
>occurred to me that maybe he is assigning the value to a variable in the 
>program and, because it's a number, it's not really 06 (or .06. or 1.06) 
>that I'm looking for.
>Does anyone have any clues on how I might narrow the search?
>Thanks for any suggestions

Being S87 and uncompressed it should decompile easily.  I forget the
name of the Clipper decompiler everyone used to use.  I never had a
copy but maybe someone here does...


Regards,
Clayton

Clayton Jones   www.cjcom.net 
 Top-Down Library for Xbase++
 X-DBU Database Utility   
 X-MEMO Memo Field Replacement

DSALVAGE worked very well on S'87

Rick

"Clayton Jones" <topdown@cjcom.net> wrote in message 
news:bsa6m31n0k6mncveb9qcmgp21v1etlq4oo@4ax.com...
> Hello Garry,
>
>>Here's a thorny one. A friend of mine who was a Clipper programmer died
>>last year. He wrote an accounting program (in S'87, I think) and as yet,
>>no one has found the source code. Canada is about to change its GST rate
>>from 6% to 5% and there are still a couple of people who use this
>>system. It seems unbelievable but he hard coded the tax rate into the
>>program. I figured that I might be able to edit the exe with a hex
>>editor and change it but searching for .06 or 06 did not produce any
>>useful results. The file is not compressed in any way and I can read
>>lots of the text in the program (including references to GST). It
>>occurred to me that maybe he is assigning the value to a variable in the
>>program and, because it's a number, it's not really 06 (or .06. or 1.06)
>>that I'm looking for.
>>Does anyone have any clues on how I might narrow the search?
>>Thanks for any suggestions
>
> Being S87 and uncompressed it should decompile easily.  I forget the
> name of the Clipper decompiler everyone used to use.  I never had a
> copy but maybe someone here does...
>
>
> Regards,
> Clayton
>
> Clayton Jones   www.cjcom.net
> Top-Down Library for Xbase++
> X-DBU Database Utility
> X-MEMO Memo Field Replacement
>

Hello Clayton,

Valkyrie is the name, here is a link to purchase.

http://www.grafxsoft.com/2valkyrie.htm

Regards,

Rodd Graham, Consultant
Graham Automation Systems, LLC

Thanks Rodd,

Too fast replying and certainly the wrong utility named, sorry.

Rick


"Rodd Graham" <rgraham@grahamautomation.com> wrote in message 
news:6c56a92235ca38ca0cae6f9896bf@news.alaska-software.com...
> Hello Clayton,
>
> Valkyrie is the name, here is a link to purchase.
>
> http://www.grafxsoft.com/2valkyrie.htm
>
> Regards,
>
> Rodd Graham, Consultant
> Graham Automation Systems, LLC
>
>

Hello Rodd,

>Valkyrie is the name, here is a link to purchase.
>
>http://www.grafxsoft.com/2valkyrie.htm

Thats it.  Nice that it's still available.  If the business' livlihood
is depending on this app then $195 is small price to pay to save it's
bacon (so to speak ).  And of course once it's decompiled it can be
converted to Xbase++...


Regards,
Clayton

Clayton Jones   www.cjcom.net 
 Top-Down Library for Xbase++
 X-DBU Database Utility   
 X-MEMO Memo Field Replacement

Hello Clayton,

>> Valkyrie is the name, here is a link to purchase.
>> 
>> http://www.grafxsoft.com/2valkyrie.htm
>> 
> Thats it.  Nice that it's still available.  If the business' livlihood
> is depending on this app then $195 is small price to pay to save it's
> bacon (so to speak ).  And of course once it's decompiled it can be
> converted to Xbase++...

I am glad that grafx software is still active.  They have maintained access 
to a lot of the old clipper environment, took over the development of CA 
Visual Objects, and are actively working a port of the Clipper/VO dialect 
to .NET.

See http://www.govulcan.net/portal/ if you are not familiar with this development. 
 It has some crossover with Xbase++ since it is also derived from the Clipper 
dialect.

While I am on the topic, the other .NET play for the Clipper dialect is http://www.softwareperspectives.com/CULEPlace/.

Both developments are active, but I do not vouch for their quality, compatibility, 
or relative merits with respect to the Xbase++ path.  Just good to know they 
are there.

I am unsure regarding Alaska's status on the Xbase++ .NET development, but 
I am sure if Hannes reads this, you will get his opinion.   (Please take 
this as humor)

Regards,

Rodd Graham, Consultant
Graham Automation Systems, LLC

Rodd,

> I am unsure regarding Alaska's status on the Xbase++ .NET development, but 
> I am sure if Hannes reads this, you will get his opinion.   (Please 
> take this as humor)

Nah, I won't repeat myself .

Please follow this (4 year old) link to make up your own opinion.
http://www.alaska-research.com/downloads/docs/linuxdotnet_milestones_EN.pdf

Compare targeted with reached goals...

Regards,
--
Hannes

Hello Hannes,

> Rodd,
> 
>> I am unsure regarding Alaska's status on the Xbase++ .NET
>> development, but I am sure if Hannes reads this, you will get his
>> opinion.   (Please take this as humor)
>> 
> Nah, I won't repeat myself .
> 
> Please follow this (4 year old) link to make up your own opinion.
> http://www.alaska-research.com/downloads/docs/linuxdotnet_milestones_E
> N.pdf
> 
> Compare targeted with reached goals...

Actually, I am pretty sure that a .NET port of Xbase++ is currently out of 
reach.  However, if it does happen it is probably still a few years off at 
best.  

Thankfully, Win32 should still have another 10 years life left at minimum.

Regards,

Rodd Graham, Consultant
Graham Automation Systems, LLC

Rodd,

>Actually, I am pretty sure that a .NET port of Xbase++ is currently out of
>reach. However, if it does happen it is probably still a few years off at 
>best.

According to Steffen, there is no plan to make a .NET Xbase++ version until
at least VX 2.0 (which will include "Arctica" and "BOBI") is released and 
MS has come out with a new ".NET 4" version. At the DevCon he basically 
said that it makes no sense to develop a .NET version right now, when MS 
will change everything again, especially while Alaska is working on this 
major revamp of Xbase++, considering Alaska's limited resources.

I personally couldn't care less about a .NET version of Xbase++, though.

-- Andreas

---                                                                      ---
  Andreas Gehrs-Pahl              E-Mail: GPahl@CharterMI.net
  415 Gute Street                     or: Andreas@DDPSoftware.com
  Owosso, MI 48867-4410               or: Andreas@Aerospace-History.net
  Tel: (989) 723-9927           Web Site: http://www.Aerospace-History.net
---                                                                      ---

Hello Andreas Gehrs-Pahl,

>> Actually, I am pretty sure that a .NET port of Xbase++ is currently
>> out of reach. However, if it does happen it is probably still a few
>> years off at best.
>> 
> According to Steffen, there is no plan to make a .NET Xbase++ version
> until at least VX 2.0 (which will include "Arctica" and "BOBI") is
> released and MS has come out with a new ".NET 4" version. At the
> DevCon he basically said that it makes no sense to develop a .NET
> version right now, when MS will change everything again, especially
> while Alaska is working on this major revamp of Xbase++, considering
> Alaska's limited resources.
> 
> I personally couldn't care less about a .NET version of Xbase++,
> though.

Thanks for this info.  I also don't care about .NET until Win32 is unsupportable 
which is many years off.

In other thoughts, I doubt that .NET v4 will cause .NET to stand still.  
I suspect it will always be a moving target.  Regardless, I think it is Alaska's 
limited resources that gives .NET some credence for hosting an Xbase++ implementation. 
 After the significant upfront investment by Alaska, .NET frees the Alaska 
team to focus on what makes Xbase++ and transfers several low layers of the 
current Xbase++ development to the Microsoft team.

Regards,

Rodd Graham, Consultant
Graham Automation Systems, LLC

Hi Garry

If that app is not too huge, i can help you to decompile it.

Frankie

On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:32:45 -0500, Garry Allen wrote:

> Here's a thorny one. A friend of mine who was a Clipper programmer died 
> last year. He wrote an accounting program (in S'87, I think) and as yet, 
> no one has found the source code. Canada is about to change its GST rate 
> from 6% to 5% and there are still a couple of people who use this 
> system. It seems unbelievable but he hard coded the tax rate into the 
> program. I figured that I might be able to edit the exe with a hex 
> editor and change it but searching for .06 or 06 did not produce any 
> useful results. The file is not compressed in any way and I can read 
> lots of the text in the program (including references to GST). It 
> occurred to me that maybe he is assigning the value to a variable in the 
> program and, because it's a number, it's not really 06 (or .06. or 1.06) 
> that I'm looking for.
> Does anyone have any clues on how I might narrow the search?
> Thanks for any suggestions
> Garry

Hi Frankie
   Thanks for the offer. I am on holidays at the moment visiting my 
oldest son (and 2 grandkids) in San Francisco. When I get back to 
Kingston I may take you up on your offer.
Garry
PS If any of you have a need to access your machine while away I can 
highly recommend LogMeIn Free. I'm writing this email on my Kingston, ON 
machine by using a Firefox plug-in on my son's machine San Francisco. 
Just like being there... but warmer.

Frankie wrote:
> Hi Garry
> 
> If that app is not too huge, i can help you to decompile it.
> 
> Frankie
> 
> On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:32:45 -0500, Garry Allen wrote:
> 
>> Here's a thorny one. A friend of mine who was a Clipper programmer died 
>> last year. He wrote an accounting program (in S'87, I think) and as yet, 
>> no one has found the source code. Canada is about to change its GST rate 
>> from 6% to 5% and there are still a couple of people who use this 
>> system. It seems unbelievable but he hard coded the tax rate into the 
>> program. I figured that I might be able to edit the exe with a hex 
>> editor and change it but searching for .06 or 06 did not produce any 
>> useful results. The file is not compressed in any way and I can read 
>> lots of the text in the program (including references to GST). It 
>> occurred to me that maybe he is assigning the value to a variable in the 
>> program and, because it's a number, it's not really 06 (or .06. or 1.06) 
>> that I'm looking for.
>> Does anyone have any clues on how I might narrow the search?
>> Thanks for any suggestions
>> Garry

Hi Garry,

Ok. But there is a restriction, the decompiler only works on Clipper
version upto version 5.2.

Meaning that if your app is using Clipper 5.3 to compile, the decompiler
will not work.

Regards

Frankie

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:11:41 -0500, Garry Allen wrote:

> Hi Frankie
>    Thanks for the offer. I am on holidays at the moment visiting my 
> oldest son (and 2 grandkids) in San Francisco. When I get back to 
> Kingston I may take you up on your offer.
> Garry
> PS If any of you have a need to access your machine while away I can 
> highly recommend LogMeIn Free. I'm writing this email on my Kingston, ON 
> machine by using a Firefox plug-in on my son's machine San Francisco. 
> Just like being there... but warmer.
> 
> Frankie wrote:
>> Hi Garry
>> 
>> If that app is not too huge, i can help you to decompile it.
>> 
>> Frankie
>> 
>> On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:32:45 -0500, Garry Allen wrote:
>> 
>>> Here's a thorny one. A friend of mine who was a Clipper programmer died 
>>> last year. He wrote an accounting program (in S'87, I think) and as yet, 
>>> no one has found the source code. Canada is about to change its GST rate 
>>> from 6% to 5% and there are still a couple of people who use this 
>>> system. It seems unbelievable but he hard coded the tax rate into the 
>>> program. I figured that I might be able to edit the exe with a hex 
>>> editor and change it but searching for .06 or 06 did not produce any 
>>> useful results. The file is not compressed in any way and I can read 
>>> lots of the text in the program (including references to GST). It 
>>> occurred to me that maybe he is assigning the value to a variable in the 
>>> program and, because it's a number, it's not really 06 (or .06. or 1.06) 
>>> that I'm looking for.
>>> Does anyone have any clues on how I might narrow the search?
>>> Thanks for any suggestions
>>> Garry