Introduction to Clarion 11

Now that we have installed Clarion, let's take a very quick look at how to get started. Naturally, we begin with the help file (RTFM!). It contains almost all the official documentation.

Run the Clarion Integrated Development Environment (IDE), go to the "Help" Menu and select "Context Help F1". The first time you open the help it may take a short time to index itself.

Click on the "Contents" tab and choose the very first topic. As you scroll down and read it, notice that there are still references to very old versions of Clarion. This is common in the documentation, so don't be alarmed. Once you have read this page, click on the "User's Guide and Lessons" link, and from there, "Continue" to the "Introduction".

On the left of the help system you will see the table of contents, and it should show you where you are in the overall document. If not, click on the "Locate" button. As a beginner there is a lot to learn, and you may think like you know it all already (especially if you have used other database systems) but it is worth going through the introductory sections carefully to see how the Clarion system organises things conceptually. It isn't always the same as other databases.
Close the help file and return to the "Clarion PE 11" folder in the start menu.

I have highlighted two menu items that you need to know about. The "Help Files" menu has an item called "Getting Started Developing Applications" which is well worth a read, even though the screen shots are hopelessly out of date in some cases. I plan to return to this file in another blog post.
The "Documentation" menu has a PDF file called "Learning Clarion". Open it and read from page 1 to page 11

We will pick up from there in the next blog post, "Getting Started with Clarion (Part1)".

[ Installing Clarion 11 on Windows 10 ]