# Can RoR replace a Clipper app? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 10, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-ror-replace-a-clipper-app/134450 "2008-04-10T23:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/walter_j)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-ror-replace-a-clipper-app/134450/1 "2008-04-10T23:15:17Z")
I developed a clipper app years ago, and am considering updating it. I’m considering Ruby on Rails for this project, but would like advice before jumping in regarding the capabilities of Ruby. 1. Would Mysql be a good replacement for a xbase database? 2. Can I build pick lists on the fly from data? 3. Can i develop a networked data entry system with Ruby 4. Is there a graphical library for Ruby that can generate line drawings with postscript text to screen and print? 5. Is there report writing programs for Ruby and Mysql? Keep in mind that it will replace a Clipper 5.3b application with a graphics library and a postscript printing library. If Ruby on Rails isn’t a good fit for repalacing Clipper, what would you recommend (hopefully open source) Thanks ---
**Author:** ![walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/walter_j)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 5:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-ror-replace-a-clipper-app/134450/2 "2008-04-11T05:46:25Z")
> 1. Would Mysql be a good replacement for a xbase database? > Yes > 1. Can I build pick lists on the fly from data? > I don’t know exactly the meaning of this, but Ruby is a very powerful > object-oriented language. So I’m sure the answer is yes. > 1. Can i develop a networked data entry system with Ruby > Rails is all about networked applications (the network is sometimes > referred to as the Internet, maybe you’ve heard of it). 🙂 > 1. Is there a graphical library for Ruby that can generate line drawings > with postscript text to screen and print? > Many including SVG, PDF, and others. There are even complete libraries > of classes for building Ruby based desktop GUI applications. > 1. Is there report writing programs for Ruby and Mysql? > Yes, several. Take a look at > [Peak Obsession](http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowtoGeneratePDFs) > for several options available to you. I don’t know Clipper, but if you want to learn Ruby you’ll need to know something about Object Oriented Programming (OOP). Ruby is a pure object language. Basically everything you interact with in Ruby is an object, and you’ll be writing many of your own objects (classes). You should also familiarize yourself with the Model-View-Controller design pattern. This is the governing pattern of a Ruby on Rails application. Other things to note are Representation State Transfer (REST), and Structured Query Language (SQL) for interacting with your database. You generally don’t write SQL code directly in Rails (although you can if you really need it). On Apr 10, 5:15 pm, Walter J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/walter_j)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-ror-replace-a-clipper-app/134450/3 "2008-04-11T14:40:08Z")
I haven’t developed in Clipper since the late 80’s - early 90’s maybe, but I’m hard pressed to think of anything the Clipper language could do that Ruby/Rails won’t do… 1. Would Mysql be a good replacement for a xbase database? MySQL is eminently usable 1. Can I build pick lists on the fly from data? You can use collections built in the controller to feed your select lists 1. Can i develop a networked data entry system with Ruby You just need to host your rails app on a machine your networked users can access 1. Is there a graphical library for Ruby that can generate line drawings with postscript text to screen and print? 2. Is there report writing programs for Ruby and Mysql? As for libraries for graphing or reporting, there are several graphing libraries available, and a reporting engine or two if I recall correctly. Check out RubyForge for available tools. ---
**Author:** ![walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/walter_j)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-ror-replace-a-clipper-app/134450/4 "2008-04-11T17:42:55Z")
Jasper reports will fulfill all your reporting needs. There is a fairly steep learning curve though. Rails can do anything Clipper can do. The main difference is that Clipper is compiled to an exe. At this time Rails is not. Also rails is web based. On Apr 10, 2:15 pm, Walter J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/walter_j)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 5:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-ror-replace-a-clipper-app/134450/5 "2008-04-11T05:46:51Z")
Robert W. wrote: > > 1. Would Mysql be a good replacement for a xbase database? > > Yes > > > 1. Can I build pick lists on the fly from data? > > I don’t know exactly the meaning of this, but Ruby is a very powerful > > object-oriented language. So I’m sure the answer is yes. > > > 1. Can i develop a networked data entry system with Ruby > > Rails is all about networked applications (the network is sometimes > > referred to as the Internet, maybe you’ve heard of it). 🙂 > > > 1. Is there a graphical library for Ruby that can generate line drawings > > with postscript text to screen and print? > > Many including SVG, PDF, and others. There are even complete libraries > > of classes for building Ruby based desktop GUI applications. > > > 1. Is there report writing programs for Ruby and Mysql? > > Yes, several. Take a look at > > [Peak Obsession](http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowtoGeneratePDFs) > > for several options available to you. > > I don’t know Clipper, but if you want to learn Ruby you’ll need to > know something about Object Oriented Programming (OOP). Ruby is a pure > object language. Basically everything you interact with in Ruby is an > object, and you’ll be writing many of your own objects (classes). You > should also familiarize yourself with the Model-View-Controller design > pattern. This is the governing pattern of a Ruby on Rails application. > Other things to note are Representation State Transfer (REST), and > Structured Query Language (SQL) for interacting with your database. > You generally don’t write SQL code directly in Rails (although you can > if you really need it). > > On Apr 10, 5:15�pm, Walter J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) up visit a rubyonrails website :[http://www.rorchina.net](http://www.rorchina.net) wolf union program club :[http://wolf.rorchina.net](http://wolf.rorchina.net) China Rubyonrails club: [http://bbs.rorchina.net](http://bbs.rorchina.net) ---
**Author:** ![walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@walter\_j](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/walter_j)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-ror-replace-a-clipper-app/134450/6 "2008-04-11T22:27:52Z")
Walter J. wrote: > I developed a clipper app years ago, and am considering updating it. I’m > considering Ruby on Rails for this project, but would like advice before > jumping in regarding the capabilities of Ruby. First, Ruby is the language, while Rails is a framework for building web applications. If you intend to build your new project as a web app then ruby and rails might be a good fit. If you simply want a client server n-tier app without having to go through the htt protocol then ruby is fine but rails may not be the route to take. You may just want to pull in ActiveRecord and drop the rest (pardon the pun). > 1. Would Mysql be a good replacement for a xbase database? Rails does not force you to use MySQL. Depending on the application’s data size, even SQLite3 might be a good replacement database for your purpose. The backend DBMS selected has more to do with how big the data set is and how many users you expect to be hitting the data store. Besides MySQL, you can use PostgreSQL, SQLite3 and a variety of others. > 1. Can I build pick lists on the fly from data? Yes, but the implementation details are left as an exercise for the user. If you go down the web app route then there are javascript libraries and rails plugins available to accomplish this in the browser. I expect similar tools exist for straight Ruby apps but I do not know of any. > 1. Can i develop a networked data entry system with Ruby You can do almost anything with Ruby that can be done in any other language, often faster. However, you probably want to research how much of the structure you can get from frameworks. Again, Rails is meant for web apps and expects the GUI to exist inside one of the popular web browsers. > 1. Is there a graphical library for Ruby that can generate line drawings > with postscript text to screen and print? Whatever graphical libraries exist for C have been or can be wrapped for access through ruby. > 1. Is there report writing programs for Ruby and Mysql? Ruby is a language. There are extensions / plugins for Ruby / Rails that assist in producing some forms of output, PDFWrite for instance, or RuPorts. But you have to write the programs yourself. For stand alone reporting from different DBMS there are no doubt a number of OS projects and commercial products to choose from, Crystal Reports for instance. But whether these are suitable depends upon what form of networked application you are talking about.