Nantucket Corp, which is based not on the Massachusetts island of the same name, but on the other side of the country in the legendary home of MGM, Culver City, California, has released a faster and more powerful version of its confusingly-named Clipper dBase language compiler for the Aston-Tate Inc database. No connection with the Intergraph Corp 32-bit chip set of the same name, Clipper in its new version enables dBase users to move existing applications to the faster Clipper environment with greater ease, says Nantucket. Clipper Summer ’87 features compilation and execution speed enhancements, optional dBase-compatible indices, new commands and functions and completely rewritten documentation. Nantucket also claims to have solved the problem of shorter application development cycles by making the compiler five times faster than the previous version. Clipper is claimed to provide easy access to low-level MS-DOS files addition and takes advantage of the MS-DOS 3.3 capability to open 250 files per process. It can compile both single-user and multi-user networking applications written in dBase or completely in Clipper and convert them into stand-alone executable files. Most applications will run on local area networks including IBM’s Token Ring, Novell Advanced Netware and 3Com Inc’s 3Plus Network Operating System. The compiler sells for $695 but registered users of the previous version, Clipper Autumn ’86, will be eligible for free update diskettes. The latest offering operates on MS-DOS micros with a minimum of 256Kb RAM, and hard disk or two floppies, with MS-DOS 2.0 or higher.
