Bio: Dave Harms

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This Clarion Bio was originally published on the Icetips News Network

Bio: Dave Harms
14-Nov-2001 -- Susan Pichotta
 
The Icetips News Network is pleased to present an interview with a man who is not only a Clarion guru, but also is a Java-man, an accomplished writer, and now is the premiere online publisher of the only magazine for Clarion developers. See what he has to say about Clarion, Java, and more.
 
Who do you work for?
I started my own company about a dozen years ago. At first I was a starving desktop publisher, but after about six months I graduated to starving programmer. It took a couple of years before I really got on my feet.
 
What do you like best about what you do now?
Two things: learning, and publishing. When I bought my first PC (in about 1988) I thought I'd tire of the whole computer field in a couple of years. I still sometimes feel that way, but there's always something new to learn. And putting out the magazine satisfies a long-time interest of mine in publishing.
 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in using Clarion?
ABC, no question. I've probably spent more of my Clarion career writing hand code than using the templates. So I always feel like I'm well behind the curve when it comes to the application generator. And while I think ABC was an excellent first effort, I don't find it particularly easy or intuitive. I hope there's a next generation of Clarion OO template programming around the corner, so I can start playing catch-up all over again.
 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in business?
Marketing! I can write code, I can write words, but marketing is still quite a mystery to me, as it is to many Clarion developers, I think. I'm learning, but I have a long way to go.
 
Do you use any computer languages besides Clarion?
Yes, Java. After Ross Santos and I wrote our Clarion book, my agent, Lisa Swayne, approached me about doing a Java book. I knew nothing about Java at the time, other than what I'd read in magazines, but my co-authors worked for Sun Microsystems and they gave me a free education. I found the language similar to Clarion in many ways, and far easier to use than C++. I now use Java for server-side web development (the subject of my book JSP, Servlets, and MySQL - hey, maybe I have learned something about marketing!). All of the server-side code behind Clarion Magazine is Java (I also use a Clarion application to manage the web site database).
 
When did you start using Clarion?
I think it was around 1988 or 1989 - I don't quite recall. This was just after I'd started my own business, which as I said focused on desktop publishing. I'd done some BASIC programming in the early '80s, and while that was interesting it just took too long to get things done with all that BASIC spaghetti code. Somehow I got the idea that it would be interesting to start writing software again, and I picked up a trial copy of R:BASE. The introductory booklet taught me a few things about relational databases; how I got from there to Clarion I don't recall exactly, but I do remember downloading a Clarion review from Compuserve. I really wanted to try this product out (no royalties was a big factor), but I didn't have the money (I was a starving desktop publisher, remember) and I didn't have a good reason.
 
Then one day I walked into a client's office, just to keep in touch, and this client said "Ah, just the person we wanted to see. We have some software we want written, and we're thinking of you and another guy, and we don't want to give the contract to the other guy." So I proposed writing the application in Clarion (somehow forgetting to mention that I'd never actually used Clarion), signed a contract, and put a copy of Clarion Professional Developer 2.0 on my credit card. It wasn't easy trying to learn Clarion from those 2.0 manuals, but I did get the contract done (I think it was for $3000) and the application did the job for a number of years.
 
What's the coolest project(s) you've worked on using Clarion?
Probably station management software for DirecTv. I used to do some work for a company in Vancouver, BC that had TV station automation software written in Clarion. They mostly sold to PBS stations until they got the contract to develop a lot of the operations software for DirecTv. It was completely new territory - none of the products on the market were up to their requirements, because nobody had ever built and deployed a broadcasting system of that scope before. Neither was ours, at the time, but Clarion made it possible to massage the application into something DirecTv could use. I mostly worked on the scheduling software, which was almost all hand code.
 
Have you done anything for a living other than software development?
I grew up in a farming area near Vancouver, BC (British Columbia, Canada) so after high school I worked some summers on local farms, driving tractors, managing work crews, etc. When I went back to university a few years later I did various kinds of home renovation during the winter, and in the summers I worked up north, first as an outboard motor mechanic and then as a fishing guide. I've also worked as an associate editor of an environmental journal, and in editorial and layout for a small book publisher. Between publishing Clarion Magazine and writing the occasional technical book, I suppose I spend more time now in the publishing industry than in the software development industry.
 
What are your hobbies/what do you like to do when you're not using Clarion?
I play golf, but not as much or as well as I'd like. I tell people I'm halfway through my ten year golf swing improvement program. I also dusted off my fly fishing gear a couple of years ago, and I've been enjoying some of the tremendous fly fishing Manitoba has to offer. And a few years ago I took some courses at a local pottery studio and learned to throw pots on the wheel. I enjoyed that a lot, but I found glazing a real challenge. I made three teapots (that's a sort of rite of passage among potters) and they looked fine, but all my glazes were too heavy and every one of the teapots got welded to the shelf in the kiln and had to be broken off. That was quite frustrating. I'd like to try again, though. Or maybe I'll give stone carving a whirl next.
 
Married, children, grandchildren, other close family you want to mention?
Bonny and I got married a little over two years ago, and it seems like only yesterday. Time flies when you're having fun! And speaking of which, we're expecting our first child in March, and we're quite excited about that. We wish we had more immediate family around (most of them live in B.C., the rest in Oregon and Ontario) but we do have many good friends in Winnipeg.
 
Where were you born?
Murrayville, BC. That's a little tiny place beside Langley, BC, which is about a half hour's drive from Vancouver as the B.C. motorist flies.
 
Where do you live now?
In a neighborhood called Crescentwood, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
 
What's interesting about where you live?
Winnipeg is home to one of the last remaining urban elm forests in North America; when the homes in Crescentwood were built, around 90 years ago, they planted lots and lots of elms. In the summer the street is canopied with leaves. Our house is what you would call a character home (no snide comments please); hardwood floors, dark oak trim, lots of beveled glass in the windows, and a large enclosed front porch.
 
The landscape in and around Winnipeg is fairly flat (we're on the prairie, after all), but an hour's drive north takes you to some of the best sand beaches on the continent, and an hour or two west and you're in the Canadian Shield, which is rolling terrain of ancient granite, forest, lakes and rivers. We have nasty cold winters sometimes, often beautiful summers, and lots and lots of sunshine.

 
Have you lived any other interesting places?
For a few years I lived in Deep Cove, which is at the eastern end of North Vancouver, BC. It's a little village on Indian Arm, which is a sort of fjord that goes some 14 miles back into the coast mountains. I had a basement suite in a house, on the water, and I often went kayaking in the evenings. Deep Cove gets about 8 feet of rain a year, and the mountains cut off a few hours of daylight at each end, so the locals say that living there is like taking a shower in the dark. But for raw beauty, its just unreal.
 
Which person, from past or present, do you most admire and why?
That's easy - Jesus Christ. He healed, loved, and accepted people. He spoke out and acted against injustice. He was strong and gentle at the same time. He showed ultimate courage and compassion, and he gave his life to bring people back into relationship with God.
 
What is your favorite food?
A much more difficult question