I did my first contracting gig getting paid by the hour hacking DBase business programs. On the side I wrote a checkbook program, calendaring app, and RPG character generator.
I have fond memories of DBase, especially DBase III+. I remember when computers had "turbo" buttons and you could make a dog program run like lightning by simply hitting the button. I also remember compiling DBase programs in Clipper, and all sorts of other fun stuff. I worked for one guy that bought faster crystals to make his CPUs run better -- the very first PC overclocking that I ever saw.
Eventually, the home/small business database market went to Microsoft, who released MS Access. All of the "real" programmers said it was a toy and wouldn't deign to use it, but consumers bought it up and started creating their own apps. This was great news for me, because most of the time they created a mess and somebody had to come in and clean it all up. DBase was a big part of how I went from high school kid to independent programmer.
dBase was very expensive, shooting itself in its own foot.
The danger of a 50000% profit or whatever Ashton-Tate accomplished, is a business culture builds up that requires 49999% profit margins to survive, when prices push down to normal levels via competition, collapse is inevitable.
I start with foxpro/visual foxpro. I still think was the MOST productive environment, bar none, for complete, end-to-end app development (for desktop).
I still miss it. I work with Delphi and later python (I like so much python) but still feel cheated by how much extra work is necessary.
I'm dreaming in a new language that mix python/foxpro and have sqlite integrate directly, so database and app development were as natural as with fox.
I still consider the Visual FoxPro REPL and debug window THE golden standard! NO even iPython is superior. It was so out-your-way and dam practical (you can use it directly from your own apps!, talking about easy solving on your running apps)
I still end up using VFP occasionally to port our older clients to our newer software.
Python/SQLite is almost as productive, you can do some sweet stuff with a few lines of code. Not as REPL, though. Throw in some pandas, IPython and some SQLAlchemy and your are rocking.
I have fond memories of DBase, especially DBase III+. I remember when computers had "turbo" buttons and you could make a dog program run like lightning by simply hitting the button. I also remember compiling DBase programs in Clipper, and all sorts of other fun stuff. I worked for one guy that bought faster crystals to make his CPUs run better -- the very first PC overclocking that I ever saw.
Eventually, the home/small business database market went to Microsoft, who released MS Access. All of the "real" programmers said it was a toy and wouldn't deign to use it, but consumers bought it up and started creating their own apps. This was great news for me, because most of the time they created a mess and somebody had to come in and clean it all up. DBase was a big part of how I went from high school kid to independent programmer.
Good times.