Hi Jim, Maybe I can add some tidbits to the “great apps in DOS” saga :=)
I was technical head of “ProLib Software GmbH” at that time. As a Software house with up to 40 programmers, we have been a prominent provider for DOS development with Microsoft FoxPro, as well as doing training and coaching for other companies. We had lots of programs, which have been used in companies of any size. FoxPro/DOS was THE tool for building datacentric applications, running first on DOS, then MAC, Linux and later Windows. Regardless if it was Cash registers, Merchandise Management, Insurances, Manufacturing: if it needed fast data access, then FoxPro was the best tool. And it supported any screen resolution with up to 132x60 and any memory provider (EMS, XMS, DPMI). I remember using a tool named “UltraVision” to get the highest Row/Line numbers with special crafted fonts (I still have the diskettes, but no serial# anymore ) Even the U.S. Defense Department used FoxPro/DOS to do their worldwide logistics and Deployment planning. That thingy was called JFAST and attending DevCon sessions about that “app” was one of those jawdropping experiences. A short glimpse can be found here: http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Dokumente/Slideshows/VfpInAction98.pps. I have a private videotape about one of those Devcon sessions from 1993, if you’re interested: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AujNq3xu6Q4_nqAarHJRuOev_Xo3cQ?e=hbby6F Another one was “Countrywide Financial” in USA, the biggest DOS-based FoxPro application worldwide, serving many millions of mortgages. That company was bought by Bank Of America in 2008 just because of that software, for 4 billion $ (in European speak: 4 Milliards). They had hundreds of IT personal to manage that beast; and later failed several times to port it to Java due to it’s immense options and volume. Everyone knows about the “Chunnel”, the canal tunnel between France and England. They used FoxPro/DOS, because it was the only tool to manage the huge amount of data coming in from all those sensors in the tunnel and store it in several databases (with 128Gb total it was the biggest database worldwide managed in FoxPro tables) for later analysis. Could go on for hours here :=) With kind regards from Bavaria Jürgen Wondzinski Visual FoxPro<http://www.msdn.com/vfoxpro> Evangelist Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional<http://mvp.microsoft.com/de-de/overview.aspx>" from 1996 to 2009, "Servoy Valued Professional<http://www.servoy.com/>“ 2011 My XING Profile<https://www.xing.com/profile/Juergen_Wondzinski>, and LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/in/wondzinski> and Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/juergen.wondzinski> and Twitter<http://www.twitter.com/wondzinski> and….. GCS d+ s:+ a+++ C++ !U P--- L E? W++ N++ o-- K--? w+++ O? !M--? V-- PS PE !Y? !PGP t 5 X R tv- b DI+ D? G e++ h-- r+++ y+++ Von: Jim Hall via Freedos-user <freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> Gesendet: Montag, 25. Dezember 2023 05:34 An: Discussion and general questions about FreeDOS. <freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> Cc: Jim Hall <jh...@freedos.org> Betreff: [Freedos-user] What DOS programs represent the 1980s and early 90s? I'm thinking about doing a video that shows how to do real work on DOS. I sometimes see comments on YouTube with people asking "could you really do *work* with DOS?" And the answer is of course you can, that happened every day.
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