Random Thoughts #1
Published 2008-09-24
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This week Clarion Magazine is having its annual fall subscription sale (save some bux, go to the home page for details), and that's put me in a reflective mood. What are some things most people probably don't know about the mag?
In this installment: ClarionMag's most popular subscriber-only articles.
Actually there are some difficulties in evaluating which of Clarion Magazine's articles are in fact the most popular, and if I had a more sophisticated tracking system I could bore you endlessly with analysis. But I don't, so I'll just bore you a little.
I do track the number of hits each article receives, but that in itself doesn't tell the whole story. For one thing, the longer an article is up, the more times it's likely to be read, so older is better. For another, some articles are referenced a lot in subsequent articles, which improves their numbers. And of course free articles will have much wider readership and cannot be directly compared with subscriber-only articles (I'll cover the top free articles another time).
Here are the top fifty subscriber-only articles of all time, with the most popular article's rating normalized to a value of 1:
Top 50 subscriber-only articles of all time |
| |
Title |
Date |
| 1.00 |
Interfaces Everywhere |
Feb 3, 2003 |
| 0.66 |
Clarion Apps Can Be Sexy! |
Dec 30, 2005 |
| 0.64 |
Introduction To SQL: Part 2 |
Mar 6, 2001 |
| 0.63 |
Clarion 6 First Look: The Examples |
Oct 16, 2003 |
| 0.59 |
Look Out, It's Outlook! (Part 1) |
May 9, 2002 |
| 0.59 |
Clarion COM:ưAs Easy As Visual Basic COM |
May 9, 2000 |
| 0.58 |
XML For Clarion Developers |
May 16, 2003 |
| 0.57 |
COM: Getting Easier By The Minute
(Part 1 of 3) | Feb 6, 2001 |
| 0.56 |
Creating Utilities For MS SQL 2000 |
Dec 31, 2003 |
| 0.55 |
Using The Web Browser OCX |
Aug 2, 2001 |
| 0.55 |
Introduction to SQL - Part 4 |
May 1, 2001 |
| 0.55 |
SQL Data Types Comparison |
Nov 15, 2002 |
| 0.55 |
Viewing An Excel Spreadsheet In A Clarion Browse |
Dec 5, 2002 |
| 0.54 |
Interfacing With An Interface |
Jun 12, 2002 |
| 0.54 |
Adding Page Of Pages To A Clarion Report |
Aug 16, 2002 |
| 0.54 |
Introduction To SQL: Part 3 |
Mar 14, 2001 |
| 0.53 |
Avoid My SQL Mistakes! |
Jul 18, 2001 |
| 0.51 |
A Single Browse For Multiple Lookups |
Jul 5, 2002 |
| 0.51 |
Clarion And The Fatal MyODBC/MySQL Flaw |
Jun 28, 2002 |
| 0.50 |
The Nuts And Bolts Of Passing Parameters: Part 1 |
Sep 12, 2000 |
| 0.49 |
.NET Basics: What Is .NET, And Why Should I Care? |
Sep 15, 2005 |
| 0.49 |
Emailing PDF Files From A Report Previewer |
Jun 28, 2002 |
| 0.48 |
Clarion, COM, Soap, and HTTP |
Jul 10, 2003 |
| 0.47 |
Beautifying Clarion Applications |
Jul 13, 2006 |
| 0.47 |
Creating ODBC Data Sources At Runtime |
May 9, 2001 |
| 0.47 |
The Nuts And Bolts Of Passing Parameters: Part 2 |
Sep 15, 2000 |
| 0.47 |
SoftVelocity's Upcoming Product Technology (Part 1) |
Apr 29, 2002 |
| 0.47 |
Using Clarion With MySQL Part 2 |
Apr 11, 2000 |
| 0.47 |
Migrating The Inventory Application To SQL Server (Part 1) |
Aug 15, 2001 |
| 0.47 |
It's an XML World! |
Apr 25, 2002 |
| 0.47 |
SoftVelocity's Upcoming Product Technology (Part 2) |
Apr 29, 2002 |
| 0.45 |
Mixing Clarion with .NET, Part 2 |
Sep 15, 2005 |
| 0.45 |
Calling A Clarion Application With PHP |
Jan 6, 2003 |
| 0.45 |
System Tray Popup Windows |
Mar 31, 2004 |
| 0.44 |
Handling COM Events - Part 1 |
Jan 11, 2002 |
| 0.44 |
Look Out, It's Outlook! (Part 2) |
May 14, 2002 |
| 0.43 |
Product Review: NetTalk, Part 1 |
Sep 19, 2003 |
| 0.42 |
The Clarion Advisor: API Tricks |
May 3, 2001 |
| 0.42 |
Creating A Designer Interface In Clarion (Part 1) |
Jun 5, 2003 |
| 0.42 |
Clarion 6 First Look: The Source Code |
Oct 30, 2003 |
| 0.42 |
Creating An MS OutLook-Style Menu In Clarion |
Aug 29, 2000 |
| 0.42 |
A Class For Tagging |
Feb 13, 2003 |
| 0.42 |
Migrate Your Topspeed Application To Firebird, Part 1 |
May 27, 2004 |
| 0.42 |
ETC Keynote Address Covers Clarion 7, .NET |
Jun 9, 2004 |
| 0.42 |
First Look: Clarion 6.3 |
Jan 27, 2006 |
| 0.42 |
Creating An MS OutLook-Style Menu In Clarion: Part 2 |
Sep 5, 2000 |
| 0.41 |
Multi-Platform Development: Clarion, MySQL, and Linux Part 3 |
Apr 18, 2000 |
| 0.41 |
.NET for Clarion Developers |
Jan 19, 2007 |
| 0.41 |
A Class For The ASCIIng |
Nov 8, 2002 |
| 0.41 |
Images, BLOBs, And The Imag'N OCX/DLL |
Apr 9, 2002 |
The most popular article, Jim Kane's Interfaces Everywhere, falls into the category of much-referenced articles, as it laid the groundwork for much of Jim's COM work. That, I think, accounts for its substantial lead over the #2 article, Colin Wynn's treatise on spicing up Clarion apps (and what do you know, sex really does sell). Colin's article is also a few years newer, so I'd say it's a contender for top spot.
COM and SQL dominate the top fifty, with Clarion 6, XML, the Windows API, OOP, and .NET all putting in appearances.
But of this list, only one article has a publication date after 2006. That's mostly because of the time factor - these articles have been around long enough to get more reads.
Here are the top fifty subscriber-only articles published since January 2007:
Top 50 subscriber-only articles since Jan 1, 2007 |
| 1.00 |
.NET for Clarion Developers |
Jan 19, 2007 |
| 0.89 |
New Alpha 2 Build Improves DCT UI |
Jul 13, 2007 |
| 0.89 |
Clarion 101: Designing A Database |
Jan 26, 2007 |
| 0.87 |
Embed Analysis: Which Embeds Do Clarion Developers Use The Most? |
Jan 30, 2007 |
| 0.79 |
C7 Alpha Bits Part 1 |
Mar 10, 2007 |
| 0.78 |
Embedding The SQLite Engine In Clarion Applications |
Feb 27, 2007 |
| 0.77 |
Using the SQL Advanced Tab |
Mar 16, 2007 |
| 0.73 |
Embed Analysis Part 3 |
Mar 22, 2007 |
| 0.70 |
Vista-Compliant INI Files |
Mar 29, 2007 |
| 0.69 |
Adding Aero Glass Effects to Clarion Apps |
May 30, 2007 |
| 0.67 |
A Simple Clarion# PDA Application |
Dec 26, 2007 |
| 0.67 |
Getting Useful Information Out of SQL, Part 1 |
Feb 15, 2008 |
| 0.67 |
Embed Analysis Part 2 |
Mar 21, 2007 |
| 0.62 |
No More Tight Loops |
Jan 31, 2008 |
| 0.62 |
Aussie DevCon: Bob Z Shows Clarion.NET |
May 27, 2007 |
| 0.61 |
Interprocess Communication: Sending Messages |
Mar 14, 2007 |
| 0.61 |
C7 Alpha Bits Part 2 |
Mar 27, 2007 |
| 0.61 |
Tiers and Objects: The Future of Clarion.NET Development |
Oct 11, 2007 |
| 0.59 |
Coping With Windows Vista - How to live with User Account Control Security |
Apr 13, 2007 |
| 0.57 |
The New Dictionary Diagrammer |
Sep 30, 2007 |
| 0.55 |
Signing Your Applications: New Challenges |
Jan 12, 2007 |
| 0.55 |
Clarion.NET Language Changes: What's Gone |
Sep 27, 2007 |
| 0.53 |
Review: Clarion Training on Demand - SQL Programming Series |
Jan 10, 2007 |
| 0.52 |
PostgreSQL Revisited |
Aug 15, 2007 |
| 0.52 |
A Simple Solution for Accordion Menus |
Oct 31, 2007 |
| 0.52 |
What Can You Do With The Clarion.NET Beta? |
Jan 25, 2008 |
| 0.51 |
Clarion.NET Language Changes: What's New |
Sep 27, 2007 |
| 0.51 |
Calling Google Earth From Clarion |
May 23, 2007 |
| 0.49 |
The Clarion 7 Beta Release |
Sep 12, 2007 |
| 0.48 |
Querying ActiveDirectory In Clarion |
Jan 17, 2008 |
| 0.48 |
Get Ahead Of Your Competition With Vista And Office 2007 |
Feb 14, 2007 |
| 0.47 |
Converting A Process To A Stored Procedure/Trigger |
Jun 15, 2007 |
| 0.47 |
Lists, CHOICE, and Hidden Tabs |
Jan 11, 2008 |
| 0.46 |
Coping With Vista - There's A Manifest In Your Destiny, Part 2 |
Apr 26, 2007 |
| 0.45 |
Multiline Radio Buttons And Checkboxes |
Sep 18, 2007 |
| 0.45 |
Profiling Your Applications |
Jul 11, 2007 |
| 0.43 |
Coping With Vista - There's A Manifest In Your Destiny, Part 1 |
Apr 20, 2007 |
| 0.43 |
Using A Browse Popup Menu For Lookups |
Jun 26, 2007 |
| 0.42 |
Kalashnikov Programming |
Jun 11, 2007 |
| 0.41 |
SQL Processing and Class Interfaces |
Jun 30, 2008 |
| 0.41 |
Boost Compile Times By Putting The ABC Classes In Their Own DLL |
Jun 18, 2008 |
| 0.41 |
Accessing Private Class Data |
Jan 26, 2007 |
| 0.41 |
Getting Useful Information Out of SQL, Part 3 |
Feb 22, 2008 |
| 0.41 |
Writing To The Windows Registry |
Mar 13, 2008 |
| 0.40 |
Using CHOOSE With PROP:SQL |
Jan 10, 2008 |
| 0.39 |
Showing ABC Errors |
Jul 20, 2007 |
| 0.39 |
Getting Useful Information Out of SQL, Part 2 |
Feb 21, 2008 |
| 0.38 |
Testing Clarion# Libraries With NUnit |
Dec 27, 2007 |
| 0.38 |
Clarion# And The Google Calendar API |
Dec 17, 2007 |
| 0.38 |
Designing Clarion# Libraries |
Dec 20, 2007 |
SQL is still a big factor, but unsurprisingly .NET has taken over from COM. (Which is as it should be; one of the really wonderful things about .NET coding is all the stuff you can get done without having to resort to the dog's breakfast that is COM. And when you have to use COM you can often do so indirectly, via an existing .NET wrapper.)
The embed analysis series has received a lot of attention, likewise the numerous articles on Vista and its virtualization and security "features." And of course anything on C7 is a must-read for many ClarionMag subscribers.
So what can you expect to see in the coming months? Much more on C7, no doubt. Although the templates aren't changing a whole lot from C6 to C7, the IDE is quite different, and there are a lot of nooks and crannies to explore. Once AppGen ships the number of developer hours ClarionMag readers spend in the new IDE will go up dramatically, and along with that I expect a lot of discoveries about workflow and development tools and techniques.
I also anticipate a fair bit of Clarion# coverage, although that probably won't hit the big time until there's a Clarion# AppGen and at least one template set. But we'll see - as always, it's all about what ClarionMag readers want to read and need to know.
If you're not a Clarion Magazine subscriber, you can subscribe now via the ClarionMag store. If you are a subscriber and you want to check your subscription status, log in to the My ClarionMag page. To top up your sub, again just head over to the store. But don't drag your butt. The fall subscription sale ends Friday, Sept 26.
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