CA-Clipper and dBase applications were the workhorses of small business computing in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some are still running. If your business has a Clipper or dBase application that's become impossible to maintain, I can help you understand what you have and create a path forward.

The Clipper/dBase problem

Clipper was a compiler for the dBase language — fast, reliable, and used to build thousands of business applications: stock management, invoicing, order processing, payroll, membership systems.

These applications are now genuinely old. They run in DOS emulation environments, or they’ve been kept alive by increasingly fragile hardware. The problems they face:

• The application runs in DOSBox or a virtual machine because modern Windows can’t run it natively
• The developer who built it worked in the 1980s or 90s and has long since retired
• The .dbf files that store the data are in a format modern software can’t easily read
• The business logic is undocumented and embedded in Clipper code
• Hardware that ran the system is wearing out

What I do

• Extract data from `.dbf` files and related Xbase data formats
• Document the application's logic, screens, and workflows
• Identify and capture business rules embedded in the code
• Deliver data in modern formats ready for migration
• Produce modernization options and a realistic path to a supported platform

What I need

• The application files (.exe, .prg, or source if available)
• The data files (.dbf, .ntx, .cdx, .dbt)
• A description of what the system does and what you need to achieve

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