5 Reasons To Begin A Clarion Blog

To begin PimpMyClarion’s entry into this world, I thought it fitting to examine Origins.

1. Clarion Is An Awesome Tool

Make no mistake. There is not another tool in the market that can give you what Clarion offers. – Easy Data manipulation via the Dictionary and FM3. – Powerful Template language (think Modding for the Non-Gaming application) – Some of the best 3rd Party Developers around (who make products like FM3, Handy Tools and NetTalk, just to name a few). – You can put together a simple app in minutes, but in a few hours, you can put together an Ass-Kicking piece of Data Manipulation genius.

2. Clarion 7 Is Around The Corner

It’s in Alpha testing right now. And whatever that means, it is better than not. Clarion 7 is going to change everything. In what direction remains to be seen, but I’m gonna battle on the side of .. Laziness. Clarion 7 is going to enable me, a Clarion programmer, to _know_ .NET. Not only that. The new IDE looks to bring about something I’ve longed for. A swanky editor where I can <ctrl>backspace and other new-fangled pieces of functionality. It’s also going to bring an influx of new blood.

3. People Read Opinions

The new blood is going to want to see life. It’s going to want to see people who are pushing forward with the outside world. Clarion is going to need opinions, and that’s where we (ha ha) come into the picture. Not to be left out, there are plenty of opinions to be found on the newsgroups, but ..

4. The Community Needs More Than Newsgroups

Newsgroups are pretty cool. But not as cool as newsgroups + blogs + wiki + <whatever new dream is realised next>. These things together are going to grow the community. That’s what we are about.

5. Because I Can Do It

Finally. The last reason is a simple one. I’ve created PimpMyClarion because I can. That’s about as good a reason as any in the end. People will agree or disagree. They’ll come or they won’t. But you are here. So cheers! If you’d like to know more about Clarion, I suggest (at this point in time) that you visit,

a. The Newsgroups, at news.softvelocity.com (comp.lang.clarion is the main)

b. sites like ClarionMag, Capesoft, Handy Tools, ClarionShop, StrategyOnline, ClarionX, Tom Ruby and lastly (hopefully getting a revamp soon) is SoftVelocity.

c. Email me, stu (at) pimpmyclarion (dot) com

Previously, On Clarion

Ping Clarion 7

Art posted a classic reply to a post entitled "Ping Clarion7", which was asking if there has been any recent news.

Following is Art’s response,

C:\\Documents and Setting\\Programming\\Clarion> Ping Clarion7

Pinging Clarion7 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for Clarion7:
   Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\\Documents and Settings\\Programming\\Clarion

 

Ha ha. I likey.

The Flame

Spend a few minutes on any major gaming forum, and you’ll discover the idea of "Flaming".

Something like, posting something simple to raise the ire of other folk.

On the newsgroups, it’s almost completely different. And this is mostly because of moderation. Good (and I use that descriptive wordy thing, to differentiate) Gaming Forums have Moderators who keep things under control. They might have ego issues, I’m not sure, but I’ve seen forums run very well.

Anyway, back to the Clarion Newsgroups.

"The Flame" is not someone posting to incite anger. It’s a topic. Any topic that someone has issue with. People might be annoyed about something. They post. Responses flow in, opposite. Then the backlash. Peppered with "Let’s not get fired up" posts.

The Flame burns bright, and then ends abruptly, probably carried into the hearts of the people in the middle.

Dan Pressnell had a couple of quite interesting posts. The first generated some .. discussion.

As I was reading through the posts, the solution came to me.

Take down the newsgroups!

Ha ha. No. Seriously. No. Well. Maybe.

What I would like is to see someone bring about VR for everyone, so we can get in a boxing ring, beat the living crap out of each other, then get back to work. Seems to me we (and I’m including myself here) don’t know how to handle heat on the newsgroups.

I’m leaning (not totally given, but "leaning") toward the Moderation idea. That the discussion is moderated. It’s a community. Any community needs rules. And needs those rules enforced. Arnie did it with awesome calls like "I let him go". We could do it with some clear rules, and some .. ruling.

I know for most folk it’s an issue of being treated like kids.

But that’s got it the wrong way around. Anarchy might be fine for your mindset, cool. But we’re not a bunch of individuals. We’re a community. So send in the marines already. Well. Perhaps the SAS. Or whatever we have over here in Oz. Start moderating conversations, not because we’re badly behaved children, but because it establishes a level of trust in the community, for new people coming in seeing that things are in order, and for old folk who if they take issue can go talk about it somewhere else.

Clean it up. Only good will come of it. Sure, some winnowing (? not sure if that’s the right word) might occur. This happens.

Anyway, as I step of this high and oh so mighty pulpit, I’ll leave you with something less preachy.

Here’s my rundown of the situation.

TheFlame

About PimpMyClarion

Clarion.

Draw yourself a mental picture of a world where Databases and Screen Design meet together and dance around the Tree of Templates.

Clarion (Soft Velocity) is a tool. It is nothing more than what you can do with it, as goes with others. In the end, it is up to you.

With this in mind, we bring you PimpMyClarion. It’s a site dedicated to telling people about Clarion.

Nifty Facts :-

– Dictionary + App = (compile) Application

– Template functionality means POWER

– 3rd Party Tools blow the lid open

– Clarion 7 is bringing .NET

– Dev Cons Rule!

PimpMyClarion_About

Stu has been using Clarion for a couple of years now. Long enough to know he’s just dipping the edge of the water.

His personal blog can be found at crumbsandstuff.com.