Re: not Cool
Actually it was something completely different.
MANY Delphi programmers came from the Clipper world, a big selling MSDOS database handling compiler which could handle a number of databases.
As to the replacement environment there were many.
Number one rules was - can my new development environment use the same database?
In most cases yes, but Delphi not straight away.
A large number of Clipper applications used the data formats DBF CDX FPT.
This was supported in a few other environments including Visual Objects and Alaska XBase++, Delphi used Paradox.
HOWEVER serious systems using Clipper used client server systems with Advantage XBase Server, this was a server based NLM handling the data, later on a Windows service and even more recent a Linux versions were added.
When the Advantage wrappers for Delphi appeared it took off. It was one of the bigger DOS escape routes.
I would put its escapee market share as similar to Visual Objects but with more non Clipper programmers on top.
The writers of AXS later ADS also used Delphi themselves.
But with the improvement in hardware specifications making SQL more usable for medium sized systems the need for fast client server ISAM is dropping, also we do not trust SAP with Advantage, SYBASE were fine.
Also all us older Clipper programmers are either retired, or within a decade of retiring, so systems are now moving to more main stream stuff like C.
We are currently benchmarking tools for our post WIN32 world. We took one choice to WIN32, Delphi users took another.
Oh and in the DOS days it was almost open warfare between Clipper and F*x developers.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
