FoxTales
Much has been written about the battles that go on between software companies over market share. FoxTales is the story about one such battle, told from the perspective of a foot soldier--my perspective. When I started working for Fox Software as a young college grad, it was a company of barely over thirty people. The next four years brought many surprises, though. In that time, Fox would release a line of award winning database products, be sued by a larger rival company, grow to over 250 employees, and eventually outlive the rival to merge with Microsoft, moving all of us thousands of miles west. And to think, I could've been a farmer.
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6recommend
13mentions
8people
2013–2026years
77% recommend23% neutral
Mentions per year
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- You might want to check out the book "FoxTales : Behind the Scenes at Fox Software"
- This is a history of dBase, not FoxPro.
Wayne Ratliff, in the late 70s, built a revolutionary piece of tech: a high-level memory-managed language that regular people could use (from early 80s!) to build database-backed user interfaces. That was dBase.
It is the greatest NoCode tool of all times.
The best release of dBase was dBase III Plus. Everything that came after was a trash-fire. dBase was interpreted - you needed the source .PRG to run it. So a couple of folks formed Nantucket and built Clipper Summer 87. It was primarily marketed as a compiler for dBase. But later versions of Clipper became their own language, and remains my most favorite programming language.
In parallel, there was FoxBase, originally a cheaper and then faster version of dBase, which was then turned to FoxPro with its separate command window and output window (thanks to a port to the original Mac GUI which necessitated it). Excellent product, extremely wide adoption for building business applications until FoxPro 2.6 for DOS.
For a detailed history of FoxPro, read FoxTales by Kerry Nietz. Anyone who's used dBase/Clipper/FoxPro would find it deeply enjoyable!
- FoxTales was a really great read! I loved it and I only ever tinkered with dBase and never used Clipper or FoxPro.
- I was confused by this too.
The blog is called The History of FoxPro. The Ratliff interview is just one post of a number in the pre-history of FoxPro detailing the rise of dBase. Many of the others pertain to FoxPro.
http://www.foxprohistory.org/tableofcontents.htm
I agree with you about the FoxTales book. It was a great read.
- One of the original Fox developers wrote a great behind-the-scenes book about the software and the company culture, uptil their acquisition by Microsoft.
It is one of the more niche, under-appreciated technology books out there: "FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software" by Kerry Nietz
FoxPro was originally FoxBase, a clone of dBase III, and in some respects better than dBase - IIRC, it could handle larger files, and worked better on a Novell Netware. FoxBase was however a console application - no windowing and no mouse.
Then in the beginning of 1989, they started working on "FireFox" - that's where the classic FoxPro GUI came to life. It was a big departure from dBase, and the name went thru multiple iterations before it became FoxPro. It was a runaway success. dBase never caught up - dBase IV tried catching up with FoxPro's GUI, but it was buggy, slow, and its lunch was being eaten by Nantucket's Clipper compiler.
It was fun times, but sadly the xBase dialect wars were superseded by the rise of Windows, and by the time people retooled into Delphi and Visual Basic, that went away and the web became the dominant application platform.
- Three Scientists and their Gods: This book foreshadows the meaning and purpose of science+tech https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214570.Three_Scientists_...
Scifi: The Three Body problem (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20518872-the-three-body-...) for its whole encompassing narrative about human future and some of it will be real (fusion instead of chemical fuel, pulse propulsion and other social consequences)
Ardor: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20931250-ardor if you ever wanted to understand ancient indian philosophy. Heavy read, not recommended for fun but more as quest
FoxTales: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/412167.Foxtales about how software was developed in the midwest free of all the fashion/hipsterism currently in vogue and building a community of users for your software
The elements of networking style: If you ever wanted to know the politics of how networking RFCs are made: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2298785.The_Elements_of_... and design choices made to build modern day internet
Unwritten Laws of Engineering: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13122143-unwritten-laws-... is an old and timeless way detailing what it means to engineer
High Performance Browser Networking: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17985198-high-performanc... if you ever wanted to know what happens inside a browser
The Computer and the Brain: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/358880.The_Computer_and_... where the master compares the machine with our brain
The Grammatical Man: If you ever wanted to know the importance of structure and constraint in everything: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722028.Grammatical_Man
