Hacker News Reader

Comment by webwanderings | Hacker News Reader

I used to use Wordstar a lot in young age. There was another software I used to use, which would let you create tables by hand, and let you fill data in it. For the life of me, I can't recall the name of that software. Unlike today's HTML tables, things were really WYSIWYG back then, between your monitor and the dot matrix printer.

View on HN

I think I used that software too. I don't remember the name either. It was sold as a database program (those were early days for relational) and they tried to present a database as tables in WYSIWYG. So everything was filling-in graphical tables and then defining operations on them (in some customized BASIC.) Actually, I remember that program as being very popular at the time. I seem to remember that they eventually abandoned the "graphical relational database" and became more focused on the graphical creation of the reports produced.

Was it Reflex? Originally sold by Analytica and later aquired by Borland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland_Reflex

That's not it for me. I recall creating boxes using arrow keys (not as much as creating database). It was very intuitive and fast to create tables (the work was ledger based accounting).

We used to use Lotus 123, Wordstar. This is before QuattroPro showed up and changed the landscape with its colorful grids and menus.

in Reflex 1.0 you started by drawing the forms and that generated the database tables. Not sure how that changed in 2.0. Might not have been the one you used, though.

I don't think it was Reflex...I think I was still on CPM. It seems like an early precursor to that program though. Honestly, my memory is pretty fuzzy - it wasn't much of a database program, it mostly just reorganized the tables in some simple ways (I remember wondering if the program's authors really understood relational. They seemed to be mostly just creating tables and doing a few operations. Jumping on the relational buzzword.) It was impressive to see it build boxes though - in those days, that was an accomplishment.

Yes, agree. Do you recall orange colored interface? That's the only thing I recall, beyond creating tables/boxes and filling in the data.

I remember an interface that was changing quickly. The first release was pretty useless - great demo but almost no useful purpose. Each release was dramatically different - lots more colors and more additions of their custom basic to try to add "relational"-type capabilities (I was trying to make it work as a small database - but it really just presented tables and did some simple reorg.) I enjoyed showing it to people in the office - they were always impressed by the "GUI". About that same time another database builder product came out - it was exclusively basic but with a custom editor that I remember impressed me. So switched to that. I do remember going back to the original program later and finding that they had pretty much abandoned their "table entry" gui. It really didn't scale to anything useful in the context of a database - and trying to define operations from that perspective just made everything "hidden" behind their table gui. (I also worked part time in a computer shop. I was a complete geek. So I always got the latest CP/M and Apple software and hardware.) Edit: I do remember a lot of orange at one point.

Just checking: was the orange interface a monochrome, amber, screen?

It's surprisingly hard to search for this kind of stuff.

I had a go, but not successfully.

I did find this list of software, which might trigger a memory?

Cardfile,

pfs:file,

QuickFile,

PC File[1],

4th Dimension,

Paradox,

dBase,

Filemaker,

foxpro,

Nutshell,

Vulcan,

http://www.retrocomputing.net/info/allan/eBook13.pdf

http://jeanne-sewell.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/history-of-datab...

None of those names sound right to me. Back in those days someone could write some software, put it on a floppy, xerox some instructions and put it all into a big plastic sandwich bag. Our computer store would then put it on a shelf to sell. That was how it was done back then. I remember calling a couple of companies and talking directly to the developer. Most of the products you mention came much later. It wouldn't surprise me if there isn't any information about those early products - except among a few old timers on blogs like this one. And some products were strictly regional - depending on which computer stores were visited by the developer. But I appreciate your effort to help the OP.

I think XyWrite had that feature. Is that what you're thinking of?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com