...and they lived happily ever after. The End. :-)
On Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 5:22 PM, Lee Hinde via 4D_Tech <[email protected] > wrote: > If I had young children I’d read this to them at bedtime tonight. > > > > On Apr 17, 2017, at 3:04 PM, Peter Jakobsson via 4D_Tech < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Being something of a “4D fossil” myself as one of our more celebrated > peers once put it, I couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at the quietly > announced retirement (see 4D Blog) of an equally entrenched but possibly > far more productive contemporary and felt I couldn’t let this news pass > without at least a minor ceremonial hat tip ;) > > > > As a bit of historical background, those who joined the community during > the last 15 years are perhaps blissfully unaware of this piece of epic > elastoplast which has held 4D’s cross-platform existence in place for the > best part of a quarter of a century. As such, it only predates Google, > Netscape Navigator, the Pentium Processor, DVDs and Windows 95 for starters. > > > > But lets go back to 1994 and the pivotal ‘pre-rollout’ of the most > advanced database in the universe at twin 4D Summits in the US and Europe > (Lille, France was the one I attended). Running on Mac, Windows AND UNIX, > it incorporated a virtual machine layer which meant the design team only > had to code for 1 platform. It also ticked just about every wishlist item > anyone has had in the 25 years since and - best of all - it wasn’t even > vapourware. I actually saw LR in front of a Sun Spark workstation run a > 10-second sequential search on 10,000 records which probably represented > the modern-day equivalent of mining a whole bitcoin to yourself in a single > day. > > > > There was only 1 problem. > > > > Although 4D Universal’s resplendent virtualisation gymnastics would > insulate it from hardware diversity, it wouldn’t insulate it from Mick > Jagger who was about to launch the world’s most widely adopted O/S the > following year. Nor would it mitigate the deafening clamor from impatient > 4D users demanding Windows compliance yesterday - no last month - with full > networking support for IPX/TCP and all known PC hardware and right now with > no delay for postage or other unnecessary hold-ups. > > > > Handily (or tragically depending on your point of view), something > “turned up”. I vaguely remember a presentation the next year where it was > announced…”we’ve actually stumbled upon a very handy tool that just lets > us….”. > > > > And so the world’s greatest database was put on ice and a new 25-year > quest engaged known as “Escape from Altura Toolbox” that made an Indiana > Jones tale look like a round of golf. Inexorably entwined with Apple’s own > “Escape from O/S 9” trauma, subsequent abortive attempts at least delivered > on symbolism with working titles such as “Goldfinger” and no-doubt several > others that never even made it off The Laurent’s & Asmae’s dinner napkins. > > > > That they’ve finally done it is a testament to perseverance of the 4th > kind (and possibly some kind of clever programming too ;) ). > > > > Congratulations to all concerned ! > > > > ********************************************************************** > 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) > FAQ: http://lists.4d.com/faqnug.html > Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html > Options: http://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech > Unsub: mailto:[email protected] > ********************************************************************** > ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) FAQ: http://lists.4d.com/faqnug.html Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: http://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:[email protected] **********************************************************************
