dBase

[techlists at phpcoderusa.com]

I was heavily into the xBase dialects from 1986 to 2000.  I stared with 
dBaseII, then dBaseIII, and was exposed to dBaseIII+.  In those early 
days I preferred dBaseIII over dBase III+ because in those days I had an 
8088 CPU with 640k of RAM, 2 - 360k floppies, and no hard drive.  
dBaseIII+ required both 360k floppies while dBaseIII only required one 
360k floppy leaving the second floppy for the application.

dBase began as a garage based project.

dBase had a command line and ran on DOS and might have run on CPM.

Think about what was accomplished with one 360k floppy.  An entire 
business could be run on an early garage clone running an 8088cpu and 
with the addition of a hard drive could have done a lot.

In 1988 or maybe it was 1989 I upgraded my 8088 based computer by adding 
a hard drive.  As I recall it was a Seagate ST-225 with a capacity of 
20MB.

To use dBase one needed some programming fundamentals and database 
normalization was a must as well.

I said all this to say that there is a niche that is being unserved 
because of a tool like bBaseIII.

Like Steve Litt said, in the 80's and 90's there was a ton of computer 
tools that were oriented towards the end user.  Today I am unaware of 
any.

I think someone like David Schwartz has the ability to create a clone of 
dBase III.  I do not have those skills otherwise I would be perusing 
this opportunity.