Clipper emerged in 1985 as a powerful compiler for dBase III and quickly became a favorite for developers building business systems for MS-DOS. With reliable performance and the ability to handle large datasets, Clipper was a go-to choice for many companies in the 1980s and 1990s.

Although Clipper is now largely nostalgic, its spirit lives on in modern successors like Harbour and xHarbour. These projects provide updated Clipper-compatible implementations for current operating systems and development environments. So while Clipper itself is retired, its legacy continues to influence database application development.