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Development Environment Tools

The following chart provides a structural flow chart of the Clarion environment:

You can read further about the Data Dictionary, Template Registry, and Report Formatter by clicking on each respective link. The following provides information about some of the other components.

Window Formatter

The window formatter provides visual design tools to customize the appearance of any form. It not only provides properties sheets to set options such as font, color, tooltips, etc., it also provides access to the design time interface for any control templates (templates tied to a particular control, such as a data grid), and it even provides access to code embed points for control events, allowing the developer to manage nearly everything within the visual tool.

Developers place controls by clicking in the toolbar, then clicking in the window. Controls can be resized by dragging. Controls can be aligned by selecting more than one control, and right-clicking for the alignment menu.

Developers can drop database fields by clicking the dictionary tool icon in the tool box, selecting a table, and then click in the window. The formatter will drop not only the control for the field, as set with whatever options were set in the data dictionary, but will also place a mnemonic prompt control for keyboard access.

Source Code Editor

The source code editor is a programmer's editor, featuring color code syntax highlighting, context sensitive help (click on a language keyword, press F1, and view the entry in the language reference), as well as a code assistant to fill in variable names by clicking in a list.

Formula Editor

The formula editor is very useful for creating conditional or logical functions. If, for example, a developer wishes to place a calculated total in a form, it's simple to use the formula to define the calculation, and the formula can then be attached to a control. In addition to mathematical calculations, the formula editor can create user defined functions and logical tests, making it an excellent tool for validity checks and other uses.

Database Manager

The Database Manager provides a simple interface for displaying the records within a database and updating them. It also provides as a launch point for conversions. The development environment allows developers to take a dictionary definition, and convert it to a different database, for example, to move data from a flat file format to an SQL DBMS. The conversion generates a Clarion program to loop through the original database and copy all its contents to the new database.

Project System

The project system allows the developer to define the compile options for the current project.

Debuggers

Clarion comes a full featured professional strength debugger: The debuggers allow programmers to set breakpoints, examine and change variables, step through the program, set watch expressions, examine Windows messages, and so on.

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