6 ms·

Borlands database was Paradox not dbase. Looks like borland was picking up the pieces of failing PCDOS companies A better history is on Wikipedia https://en.wi

Borlands database was Paradox not dbase. Looks like borland was picking up the pieces of failing PCDOS companies A better history is on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBase For dbase look at Nantucket Clipper and Fox Base (which MS bought). They lasted into the Windows era. Also see the open source harbour which round on unix

teilo 6y ago
Borland bought Aston-Tate in 1991, and thereafter owned dBase. Borland also developed Paradox prior to that acquisition. Clipper and FoxBase were dBase clones, and not always compatible. I did a lot of Clipper programming in the 90s, and a lot of reporting in MS Access. The dBase ODBC drivers could sometimes be hit or miss when used with Clipper DBFs.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  For DB applications, I got introduced to xBase via dBase III, then moved into Clipper Summer '87, followed by Clipper 5.x including doing OOP stuff in it. And that was it, Visual Objects was a disappointment and I eventually fully focused on C++/TPW based applications on Windows 3.x.
  - teilo 6y ago
    And let's not forget Btrieve. Prior to my Clipper work, I did a lot of work building an estimation and accounting system based on Btrieve databases, using an obscure system called TAS Professional. Evidently it still survives in some incarnation: http://www.cassoftware.com/tas/manual/index.html?btrievesetup.htm http://www.cassoftware.com/tas/manual/index.html?btrievesetu...
    - tibbydudeza 6y ago
      We used it under DOS for our backoffice system - you talked to the "database" engine using an interrupt via loaded as a TSR utility.
- tibbydudeza 6y ago
  Borland bought Paradox (was developed by Ansana (???)) as a me-too move when their biggest competitors Microsoft/Lotus was moving into databases.
  - teilo 6y ago
    Borland had very little except "me too" products, TBH. Pascal, C++, etc. But Delphi was a nice system, FWIW. Of all the Borland products, this one had the longest shelf-life, now still actively developed by Embarcadero.
    - wenc 6y ago
      I really don't agree and I don't think creating a product in the same category is "me-too". Borland had some truly great products back in the day. Quattro Pro had innovations that surpassed the incumbent 1-2-3's. Paradox had innovations that superseded dBASE. Turbo Pascal was a popular product on its own merit (UCSD Pascal, Quick/MS Pascal never caught on commercially). Turbo C and Quick C were competitors, and many applications back in the day used the Turbo Vision text UI. In the 1980s and early 90s, the marketplace was full of competing office products before Microsoft Office came around and dominated then scene (folks might remember Lotus SmartSuite and Corel WordPerfect Office). Spreadsheets weren't always synonymous Excel, nor word processors with Word.
      - teilo 6y ago
        Dude, I used to use Visicalc.
        wenc 6y ago
        Which should help you understand my perspective better. I don’t agree that Borland “had very little except "me too" products“ just because another product in the same category existed first. Lotus 1-2-3 was essentially a clone of VisiCalc on the IBM PC but it was also its own thing.
  - wenc 6y ago
- protomyth 6y ago
  I know of at least one government contractor that was still shipping a clipper application at least until 2019. It is amazing the software that is foisted on government grantees.
- EricE 6y ago
  I recently came across my old Clarion disks. Clarion on OS/2 - those were the days!
CurtHagenlocher 6y ago
FWIW, Paradox was also originally an acquisition by Borland, from a company named "Ansa Software".
rbanffy 6y ago
In the end Borland acquired what was left of Aston Tate, so I guess it's fair to call it Borland now.
myth2018 6y ago
Harbour is really interesting and, last time I saw it some years ago, its development was pretty active. I have already messed around a bit with Harbour and even wrote some small tools for personal use. I was pretty happy with the combination of modern capabilities with the old-school "TUI ergonomics", allowing one to render a TUI to a Win32 GDI context (they give a name to that capability, which I can't recall. It seems that there is also the possibility of rendering to X11 windows, if I'm not mistaken). I know a couple of decades-old Clipper shops which continued their development with Harbour (although they migrated from DBF files to relational databases), and their businesses are doing fairly well.
wenc 6y ago
Borland acquired Paradox from Ansa. They later acquired Ashton Tate which gave them dBASE. For those who have used both, many consider Paradox the superior product (technically and also in terms of ease of use, hence the name “paradox”). It had innovations like QBE and a modern Turbo Vision interface. The Paradox Application Language (PAL) was a joy to write in. dBASE had name recognition but was unwieldy in many ways. Having two flagship database products unfortunately led to a confused strategy and neither product thrived after the acquisition.

teilo 6y ago

Borland bought Aston-Tate in 1991, and thereafter owned dBase. Borland also developed Paradox prior to that acquisition. Clipper and FoxBase were dBase clones, and not always compatible. I did a lot of Clipper programming in the 90s, and a lot of reporting in MS Access. The dBase ODBC drivers could sometimes be hit or miss when used with Clipper DBFs.

pjmlp 6y ago
For DB applications, I got introduced to xBase via dBase III, then moved into Clipper Summer '87, followed by Clipper 5.x including doing OOP stuff in it. And that was it, Visual Objects was a disappointment and I eventually fully focused on C++/TPW based applications on Windows 3.x.
- teilo 6y ago
  And let's not forget Btrieve. Prior to my Clipper work, I did a lot of work building an estimation and accounting system based on Btrieve databases, using an obscure system called TAS Professional. Evidently it still survives in some incarnation: http://www.cassoftware.com/tas/manual/index.html?btrievesetup.htm http://www.cassoftware.com/tas/manual/index.html?btrievesetu...
  - tibbydudeza 6y ago
    We used it under DOS for our backoffice system - you talked to the "database" engine using an interrupt via loaded as a TSR utility.
tibbydudeza 6y ago
Borland bought Paradox (was developed by Ansana (???)) as a me-too move when their biggest competitors Microsoft/Lotus was moving into databases.
- teilo 6y ago
  Borland had very little except "me too" products, TBH. Pascal, C++, etc. But Delphi was a nice system, FWIW. Of all the Borland products, this one had the longest shelf-life, now still actively developed by Embarcadero.
  - wenc 6y ago
    I really don't agree and I don't think creating a product in the same category is "me-too". Borland had some truly great products back in the day. Quattro Pro had innovations that surpassed the incumbent 1-2-3's. Paradox had innovations that superseded dBASE. Turbo Pascal was a popular product on its own merit (UCSD Pascal, Quick/MS Pascal never caught on commercially). Turbo C and Quick C were competitors, and many applications back in the day used the Turbo Vision text UI. In the 1980s and early 90s, the marketplace was full of competing office products before Microsoft Office came around and dominated then scene (folks might remember Lotus SmartSuite and Corel WordPerfect Office). Spreadsheets weren't always synonymous Excel, nor word processors with Word.
    - teilo 6y ago
      Dude, I used to use Visicalc.
      - wenc 6y ago
        Which should help you understand my perspective better. I don’t agree that Borland “had very little except "me too" products“ just because another product in the same category existed first. Lotus 1-2-3 was essentially a clone of VisiCalc on the IBM PC but it was also its own thing.
- wenc 6y ago
protomyth 6y ago
I know of at least one government contractor that was still shipping a clipper application at least until 2019. It is amazing the software that is foisted on government grantees.
EricE 6y ago
I recently came across my old Clarion disks. Clarion on OS/2 - those were the days!

CurtHagenlocher 6y ago

FWIW, Paradox was also originally an acquisition by Borland, from a company named "Ansa Software".

rbanffy 6y ago

In the end Borland acquired what was left of Aston Tate, so I guess it's fair to call it Borland now.

myth2018 6y ago

Harbour is really interesting and, last time I saw it some years ago, its development was pretty active. I have already messed around a bit with Harbour and even wrote some small tools for personal use. I was pretty happy with the combination of modern capabilities with the old-school "TUI ergonomics", allowing one to render a TUI to a Win32 GDI context (they give a name to that capability, which I can't recall. It seems that there is also the possibility of rendering to X11 windows, if I'm not mistaken). I know a couple of decades-old Clipper shops which continued their development with Harbour (although they migrated from DBF files to relational databases), and their businesses are doing fairly well.

wenc 6y ago

Borland acquired Paradox from Ansa. They later acquired Ashton Tate which gave them dBASE. For those who have used both, many consider Paradox the superior product (technically and also in terms of ease of use, hence the name “paradox”). It had innovations like QBE and a modern Turbo Vision interface. The Paradox Application Language (PAL) was a joy to write in. dBASE had name recognition but was unwieldy in many ways. Having two flagship database products unfortunately led to a confused strategy and neither product thrived after the acquisition.