Re: Mildly OT: dBASE IV
From: Frank Hamersley <terabitemightbe_at_bigpond.com>
Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 13:21:45 GMT
Message-ID: <JzCeg.13205$S7.11478_at_news-server.bigpond.net.au>
>
> When I was sixteen there was a huge shrink-wrapped box on the shelf called
> "dBase II". (I was later to find out there never was a dbase I). It was
> up there with another intimidating $600.00 box labeled "Lotus 123".
>
> A few years later I made the same basic discovery that those countless other
> consultants made. Being unschooled in any kind of relational theory, if in
> fact we had any formal computer education at all, and with backgrounds
> ranging from Physics to History, we recognized a product with immense
> intuitive appeal. We saw that we could grind out apps fast that people
> would pay good money for.
>
> That product by the way was Foxpro. By the time dbase IV came around, the
> shops that had built their fortunes on it were already breaking up. They
> can blame Ashton-Tate if they want, but I took more than one job from them
> and from I could tell they all thought they were IBM. They were fat,
> arrogant, uncompromising, and disappearing.
>
> My generation of consultants would never have touched dbase, it was already
> the dinosaur. Foxpro was the bees knees. When C/S came along fox morphed
> beautifully and went along. I elected not to use it for 3-tier because for
> one it was too much of a stretch of its original intent, and for two
> Microsoft doesn't want me to use it on Linux, so I granted their wish and
> don't use their products at all anymore.
Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 13:21:45 GMT
Message-ID: <JzCeg.13205$S7.11478_at_news-server.bigpond.net.au>
Kenneth Downs wrote:
> Marshall wrote:
>
>> I randomly surfed my way to a PC World article on the >> "25 Worst Tech Tech Products of All Time." It was actually >> better done than those sorts of things usually are. >> >> I was interested to see item #5: dBASE IV. >> >> http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,3,00.asp#dbase >> >> Roughly, the blurb claims the company went from market leader >> to nowheresville on the "strength" of this single release. >> >> I vaguely remember Ashton-Tate as a once-was tech giant. >> >> Anyone have any stories about this they'd care to share?
>
> When I was sixteen there was a huge shrink-wrapped box on the shelf called
> "dBase II". (I was later to find out there never was a dbase I). It was
> up there with another intimidating $600.00 box labeled "Lotus 123".
>
> A few years later I made the same basic discovery that those countless other
> consultants made. Being unschooled in any kind of relational theory, if in
> fact we had any formal computer education at all, and with backgrounds
> ranging from Physics to History, we recognized a product with immense
> intuitive appeal. We saw that we could grind out apps fast that people
> would pay good money for.
>
> That product by the way was Foxpro. By the time dbase IV came around, the
> shops that had built their fortunes on it were already breaking up. They
> can blame Ashton-Tate if they want, but I took more than one job from them
> and from I could tell they all thought they were IBM. They were fat,
> arrogant, uncompromising, and disappearing.
>
> My generation of consultants would never have touched dbase, it was already
> the dinosaur. Foxpro was the bees knees. When C/S came along fox morphed
> beautifully and went along. I elected not to use it for 3-tier because for
> one it was too much of a stretch of its original intent, and for two
> Microsoft doesn't want me to use it on Linux, so I granted their wish and
> don't use their products at all anymore.
My poison was Clipper Summer 87 and then 5.01 from Nantucket (the 2 gold releases). When Foxpro came out it was seen more as a clone of the dBase user environment while Clipper was a *woo hoo* compiler (well sort of)! I ended up using Foxpro on SCO for an app that lasted for 15 years before it was retired. It was fast and quite reliable.
When M$ bought FoxPro and Nantucket went off with VO - soon followed by CA slurping Nantucket up, the future was writ large on the wall.
Cheers, Frank. Received on Mon May 29 2006 - 15:21:45 CEST