Harbour and AI: Renaissance or stagnation? A call to the community

[Marcos Jarrin]

Hello everyone,

Harbour is a great language, but it is not well known by many people. Many still consider it simply as a tool for updating programs written in Clipper.

The number of people who use it is very small. We have a very stable community, but it is small. It does not grow, and there are no large companies backing it.

I believe we are at a critical moment. With the arrival of AI, this is the time to overcome the difficulties we have faced or it could be the end and the definitive stagnation of the language.

I have tested many AI models, and very few of them manage to create error-free programs. This is due to a lack of knowledge about the language's syntax, since it is a niche language, there is little code on GitHub for the models to train on properly.

For my part, I will put all my effort into ensuring that Harbour and its graphic library, MiniGUI Extended (which is the one I use), can position themselves better.

To achieve this, I have started doing the following:

I have created repositories on GitHub with documentation and examples for Harbour.

How can you help?

1. Give stars to the repositories to increase their visibility.
2. Create your own repositories with technical information and complete system code.
3. Follow or create social media accounts dedicated to publishing content about Harbour.
4. Generate new content or follow those who are already creating it.
5. Create libraries that solve common problems when developing systems, so more people can focus on solving their specific needs, and the Harbour MiniGUI Extended ecosystem can grow.
6. Achieve, by all possible means, that Harbour is recognized as a modern language capable of competing with any other.
7. Comment on the language's maintenance forum with new features you believe are important to implement.

Some GitHub accounts and blogs that create content:

GitHub  
https://github.com/marcosjarrin/Harbour_oop_manual  
https://github.com/marcosjarrin/harbour-tech-manual-and-examples  
https://github.com/VictorCasajuanaMas/HB_ORM  
https://github.com/FiveTechSoft/HarbourBuilder  
https://github.com/ivanilmarcelino/designer  
https://mod-harbour.github.io/mod_harbour.v2/

Blog  
https://miniguiextended.blogspot.com/

Instagram  
Account dedicated to Harbour:  
https://www.instagram.com/juanperez95123/

Groups  
https://groups.google.com/g/minigui-forum  
https://groups.google.com/g/harbour-users  
https://groups.google.com/g/harbour-devel

YouTube  
https://www.youtube.com/@IvanilMarcelino  
https://www.youtube.com/@BadaSystemIA

Facebook  
BadaSystem:  
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100045542240165

Nexo Tecnológico:  
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1652593052612383

Harbour MiniGUI:  
https://www.facebook.com/groups/366493540133705

Harbour 2 PHP – DevTalks & AI:  
https://www.facebook.com/groups/863412360879659

We are facing a challenge as a community. Either we take advantage of this moment, and with the help of AI, we boost the language we use, or we fall into oblivion.

Sincerely,

Marcos Jarrín