serowe wrote:
Maybe now I can admit to being on the beta team for it (well at least V1.x) and I recall having those nasty thoughts back then as well!
I still having nasty thoughts even today

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Sadly for us, It was a perfect storm against xBase future:
1. The CA decision of terminate Clipper and replace with VO.
2. The Fox Software acquisition by MS (*).
3. The late arrival of Borland dBase V for Windows (A GREAT PRODUCT). It was published when Visual Basic was already the worldwide standard development tool for Windows.
(*) This acquisition was very bad for xBase because:
a). One of the first things happened was the termination of Unix, and Mac versions of Fox. Until that moment, you could use the same sources in DOS, Unix, Mac and Windows. Such feature (among others) made FoxPro one of the most popular development tools at that time (about 1992).
b). Visual Foxpro arrived too late and was plenty of problems. Some of these problems were solved in later versions, but was even more late.
c) The permanent rumors of VFP product discontinuation. They started very soon after the first VFP version were published and were based in the theory that the Fox acquisition by MS was motivated to eliminate MS Access competition and get Fox technology (specially 'Rushmore') at the same time. VFP lasted until 2007, but the those rumors destroyed the product future many years before.
As you can imagine, much of the motivation to create HMG comes from these facts.
I'm sure that, if at least one thing happened in a different way (CA creating Clipper For Windows, Borland publishing dBase V for Windows earlier or MS not acquiring Fox Software) xBase could have been the dominant language for desktops in 90s and such popularity could have brought xBase interpreters for web servers as default in 2000's... who knows... stranger things had happened
PS: This could be a good idea for a new sequel of The Butterfly Effect movie
PS2: Being the Fox acquisition by MS, the worst of the all things mentioned, I specially enjoy my new 'MS free' personal life with my Android phone and my Linux PC at home
