dBase: 1979-2026

(delphinightmares.substack.com)

20 points | by deeaceofbase 2 days ago

6 comments

  • julianz 29 minutes ago
    My very first paid gig, aged 12, was figuring out how to print mailing labels from a Bondwell CP/M laptop running dBase II. Didn't enjoy it.
  • jhbadger 16 minutes ago
    My first gig at 18 was managing my university library's database (in dBase III; it was the 1980s) and writing the user interfaces for searching. This was a pre-SQL database for you youngins in case you have no idea what I'm talking about.
  • tobad357 43 minutes ago
    I feel the timeline is wrong re when dBase Inc took over. I remember working as a consultant on shipping new features for dBase back in 2000 or so.

    I implemented reflection for the dBase language and was also part of trying to convert it to Visual C++ instead of using the Borland compiler. I was very green back then but it was interesting, my only time dealing with interpreters / compilers

  • orionblastar 2 days ago
    Microsoft Access 2.0 had filters to import and export data from and to DBF files. We used this in WFW 3.11 to convert from DBase to MS-Access and later on SQL Server.

    There were some Turbo C and Turbo Pascal source code that read DBF files, but hardly anyone used them. Most stored data is in text files that can be read by any application.

  • yathartha 2 days ago
    Fascinating obituary for dBase; software history repeats through neglect, litigation, complacency.