DOS-era business software · Clipper · Pascal · dBase
A modern interface for a DOS business program that still works
Order entry, stock, parts and invoicing written in the 80s and 90s still runs the day in a lot of well-run companies. It is fast, it is paid for, and it is correct. What it is not is teachable. We build a modern interface on top of it and leave the program, its data files and its rules untouched.
TODAY — KUNDREGISTER V4.2
F2=SÖK F4=FORDON F7=ORDER ESC=MENY ──────────────────────────────────── KUNDKOD....: KU-10428_ NAMN.......: NORDVIK TRANSPORT AB RAB.KOD....: 12 BET.VILL: 30D SALDO......: 14 320,00 KREDIT: OK ──────────────────────────────────── > F4 för fordon > F7 för ny order ERR 0x27: OGILTIGT FÄLTVÄRDE
Through the new interface
One screen instead of four
Customer, vehicles, discount, latest order and contact person together.
Search instead of codes
Name, phone number or part of an article description — no memorised customer numbers.
Errors in plain words
"ERR 0x27" becomes a sentence saying which field is wrong and what to put there.
The old program answers
It calculates the price, reserves the stock and returns the order number, exactly as today.
What the day looks like today
Codes from memory
Customer and article numbers must be known by heart, or looked up on a printed list taped to the desk.
A new hire needs weeks
Six to twelve weeks before someone can take a normal order alone — if you can hire at all.
Everyone is afraid to touch it
Nobody has the source code handy, the original developer is long gone, and it has never once gone down.
How the connection is made
We drive the program, not the database
A small local agent runs the program in a compatible environment, fills the fields, sends the exact keystrokes and reads the confirmation line back.
Or the data files directly, when that is safer
Where the program stores its data in DBF, Paradox or fixed-format files, we can read and write the same format with proper locking.
"Sent" is not "done"
The agent waits for the program's own confirmation. If the result is unclear it says so instead of falsely reporting success.
Runs on your own machines
The agent sits next to the program, inside your network. Your data never has to leave the building.
The DOS program stays the source of truth and keeps its existing links to stock, suppliers and accounting. Staff can be back on the old screen in seconds if they ever want to be.