Harbour (programming language)

Harbour is a computer programming language, used mainly to create database/business programs. It is a modernised cross-platform version of the older Clipper system, which in turn developed from the dBase database market of the 1980s and 1990s. It is free and open-source software which license is GNU General Public License (GPL) compatible. Harbour code uses the same databases and can be compiled under a wide variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Unix variants, several Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) descendants, macOS, Windows CE, Symbian, iOS, Android, VxWorks, OS/2 (including eComStation and ArcaOS), BeOS–Haiku, and AIX. The idea of a free software Clipper compiler had been arising for a long time and the subject occurred often in discussion on comp.lang.clipper. Antonio Linares founded the Harbour project and the implementation was started in March 1999. The name "Harbour" was proposed by Linares, it is a play on a Clipper as a type of ship. Harbour is a synonym for port (where ships dock), and Harbour is a port of the Clipper language. In 2009, Harbour was substantially redesigned, mainly by Viktor Szakáts and Przemyslaw Czerpak. Harbour extends the Clipper Replaceable Database Drivers (RDD) approach.