Hi

I currently use Clipper, XBase++ and Express++ to produce a database
application that does some special administrative tasks in charities.
Because organisations vary in size, the solution needs to scale from
single user to multi-user concurrent scenarios and work across a wide
range of computing platforms.

In order to do this cost effectively I use Clipper source code that
contains the core 'business' logic and compile it to produce a small
16 bit app (0.6 Mb) with a text presentation that runs on MS-DOS to
XP. I can produce and distribute this type of application on Floppy at
low cost because it is easy to develop and requires minimal support.

To meet more advanced needs, I use XBase++ (from Alaska Software) to
re-compile the Clipper code into an 32 bit application then add a
Windows style presentation with Express++ plus record locks etc. The
role of Express++ is to pass data entered into the Windows screens
back into the Clipper logic to update the  database (Clipper DBF's are
common to 16 & 32 bit EXE) and produce reports.

Thus I can scale and enhance the application without changing the
data store and avoiding having to re-write tried, tested and
persistent business logic as technology moves on.

What alternative (preferably non-interpreted) language or set of
languages, with a common syntax can also be used to do this?

The benefits sought are:

- improved language stability
- better visual tools, libraries & controls to speed up development
- better de-bugging & testing tools to reduce post release bugs
- option to use alternative DataBases e.g. MDB, MSDE or SQL (native/not ODBC)
- retain options to compile applications for UNIX in future 

A brief SWOT for the alternative languages e.g. C/C++ and Supplier
Microsoft/Borland would be appreciated

Many Thanks

While it is not likely to be able to run off a floppy, a
PHP/Apache/MySQL solution is rather simple to provide, cross platform,
free, and stable enough to run some of the world's biggest databases.

Since the front end would possibly be a web page, the cross platform
availability is great. The app can run on anything with a browser, and
the servers can run on almost any 32 bit OS.

You may find that you can continue well with what you have, and stay
in a Microsoft world, but it's not that hard to move to open source
products.

This is a free comment.

Computer Associates developed a Windows-based database language called
Visual Objects. I think it's still available:
http://www.cavo.com/news/press/vo27.asp

Microsoft Visual Foxpro might be your best bet. It has graphical
design tools for forms and reports, but under the hood is an
XBase-derived language which is similar to Clipper but adds
object-oriented features: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/

Borland produces Delphi, which I believe is a Pascal-type language
with database language: http://www.borland.com/delphi/