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From my (very dim) memory, Pick was popular because it did everything some users needed and was easy to use (relatively speaking). I never met anyone who used

• skissane 4y ago
  It was built on BASIC – and it really took off at a time (late 1970s / early 1980s) when BASIC was still a very major programming language. I think its database features have been somewhat overhyped – but no doubt an area of strength when compared to other lower-end systems of the same time period. The fact that the OS, programming language and database were all a single software package, developed together and sold as a unit, attracted people. Much of its initial success was also due to its marketing strategy – target ISVs who would resell it as the basis of turnkey solutions. It was based on a virtual machine, which made it easy to port to disparate hardware platforms – everything from PCs, to multiple incompatible minicomputer lines, to IBM mainframes – a key selling point in its day – although not a unique approach (see UCSD Pascal). Other approaches to portability – such as the C programming language – hadn't really taken off yet.
  • jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
    I used one of the more modern Pick variants (D3) at job during the first internet bubble. It did support a SQL query syntax, which I think makes it distinct from MVS et all. In any case its much lauded nesting feature in practice just ends up being a different way to do joins, and not particularly superior as I recall.
    • skissane 4y ago
      > It did support a SQL query syntax, which I think makes it distinct from MVS SQL query support wasn’t added to PICK platforms until the 1990s or thereabouts - at least 10 years after SQL became available on MVS (via DB2, Oracle, etc)