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Board index mod_harbour Harbourino – The 'Too Simple' Idea That Outlived the Frameworks
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Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2005 07:07 PM
Harbourino – The 'Too Simple' Idea That Outlived the Frameworks
Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2025 07:28 AM
The Harbourino Concept
has always been dismissed as too simplistic or unprofessional — too little object orientation, too close to old-school programming, too pragmatic.

Instead, projects like TWeb attempted to introduce heavy, monolithic frameworks — with deeply nested classes, inline HTML, jQuery dependencies, and dozens of plugins.

But five years later, it’s clear:
Harbourino works — it’s stable, modular, and future-proof.

It follows the proven logic of the FiveWin style:

* declarative instead of overly structured,
* readable instead of overengineered,
* reduced to what really matters.

---

A Side-by-Side Comparison

#### FiveWin:

@ 10,10 SAY "Username"
@ 12,10 GET cUser
@ 14,10 BUTTON "Login" ACTION Login()
`

#### Harbourino (for the Web):
$-> SAY : caption=Username
$-> GET : id=user
$-> BUTTON : cTitel=Login; action=Login()

The core idea is the same:
UI as structured, declarative code — whether for desktop or web.

Harbourino doesn’t need a framework. It’s a preprocessor principle that works just as well in PHP as in mod\_harbour — especially where you want speed, modularity, and clarity without architectural overhead.

While many modern frameworks collapsed under their own weight, Harbourino has quietly proven itself — offering a lightweight, extensible, FiveWin-style approach to web UIs that is clear, productive, and battle-tested.
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Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 04:55 PM
Re: Harbourino – The 'Too Simple' Idea That Outlived the Frameworks
Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2025 08:34 PM

Very interesting.

How do I get started?

Posts: 6983
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2005 07:07 PM
Re: Harbourino – The 'Too Simple' Idea That Outlived the Frameworks
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2025 06:32 AM

Hi asesormix, I'm glad I caught your interest!

To answer your question — how to get started — I would need to know a bit more about you:

Do you already have experience with web development? If yes, what tools or languages do you use?

What kind of application are you planning to build?

How much time can you realistically invest?

With that info, I can point you to the best possible starting point.

Best regards,

Otto

Posts: 1283
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 02:34 PM
Re: Harbourino – The 'Too Simple' Idea That Outlived the Frameworks
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2025 05:37 AM
Hi,
Otto wrote: Instead, projects like TWeb attempted to introduce heavy, monolithic frameworks — with deeply nested classes, inline HTML, jQuery dependencies, and dozens of plugins.
By way of reference, Tweb (part of UT) continues to work perfectly and helps programmers quickly create their web apps. Numerous examples, from the most basic to applications such as a DBU or MySQL manager, can be downloaded here.

https://carles9000.github.io/index_doc_en.html?search=examples

Can you provide a sample application so we can see how you plan to build a fast, robust, and functional web application? (Authentication, browsing, simple CRUD,..)

Perhaps then users can see how they can build an application using your system. I feel like I'm still baffled...

Thanks.
C.
Salutacions, saludos, regards

"...programar es fácil, hacer programas es difícil..."

UT Page -> https://carles9000.github.io/
Forum UT -> https://discord.gg/bq8a9yGMWh
HIX -> https://github.com/carles9000/hix
Posts: 6983
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2005 07:07 PM
Re: Harbourino – The 'Too Simple' Idea That Outlived the Frameworks
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2025 08:25 AM
Hi,
Back then in the Skype group, they called me a spaghetti coder.
But looking at today’s tools and realities — I think I wasn’t that wrong.

Harbourino doesn't aim to replace TWeb in features — both can build dialogs, grids, forms.
But it does replace complexity with clarity, frameworks with flow, and runtime magic with readable structure.

Declarative, FiveWin-style UI
Preprocessed logic — debugged 1:1
Zero dependencies
AI-friendly and maintainable

In the end, what helps us understand our own code six months later is what matters.
That’s what Harbourino was built for.

And to clarify: Harbourino is not a traditional framework.
It’s more like a text macro system or editor extension that allows simplified, structured code.
It can be used for anything — not just web UIs. You could call it a language-like layer that makes authoring faster, cleaner, and more adaptable to automation and AI tooling.

The inspiration came from the classic Clipper preprocessor directives like #define, #command, and #translate.
These allowed complex logic to be expressed in a clean and compact way — often more readable than modern languages with their heavy use of function, def, or braces. I wanted to bring that same clarity back — especially for developers who, like me, don’t want to write verbose boilerplate code just to define a layout or interaction.

Using Harbourino’s preprocessor and patcher, I can define my own syntax, create OOP-like modularity, and even structure code in a way that’s optimal for AI-based tooling and human understanding alike.

Best regards,
Otto

PS: Latest addition — EasyReport for HTML. Inspired by FiveWin, designed for the browser. Fully structured, fully declarative.



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