Several years ago the members of the Clipper Users Group of SA had a tough decision to make.
They had to decide what they wanted to do with their club. Clipper was although still popular starting to loose momentum as 'the' database programming language of the MS-DOS world. Our members hunted high and low looking for Microsoft Windows application programs which would suit their varied needs. At that time there was no definite path. Some took on Visual Basic, others Foxpro, Dataflex and Powerbuilder. A few tried hard to come to grips with the new Clipper called Visual Objects, some even went the way of databases in Clipper and front ends in DOS Windows emulated environments and windows reporting programs. Our membership was unstable as everyone tried to find the 'Holy Grail' of programming and database programming that Clipper had been to the DOS world. A few of us started to use Borland's Delphi.
At that stage everyone was pretty much going their own way, our club needed a new emphasis and direction. The members decided that they really did want to continue the friendships they had made and gain from and contribute to the knowledgebase that was within our club. From this one common theme came out of our interests. Although we were called upon to do many different tasks in our programming, there was usually a database behind it.
This is why the club became the 'Database Developers Association of South Australia'.
Since those days most of us are now using Borland's Delphi in some of our work. More than anything members can come to ask questions no matter how simple or complex and hope to at least go away with some ideas to try and know that the other members will be thinking of their problem and how to solve it too.
We have several members who travel long
distances - just to chat, contribute and learn, one group
travel over 3 hours each way to attend. Well Done! Pete Hancock and
those who come with him.