2
|
|
2 |
|
|
PORTING
continued
|
|
decided that, as a preliminary sketch for the Windows version, we’d do the Mac version.
We thought that, because the Mac had good documentation
and
quite mature programming
tools,
it
might
be the shortest route to a Windows version. We assumed that 80 percent of Mac
code
would port directly into the Windows environment. So we entered into the Mac project with the thought that it would probably be a
kind
of a throwaway, and we
didn’t
really view it as having much commercial impact.
So you
didn’t
do market
research
In depth
before
deciding to go to the Mac?
decision.
At what point did you
realize
that you probably had a winner on your hands?
1987, when we saw
the
really tremendous excitement on the
part
of the DOS developers seeing what could be done on the Mac,
and
a lot of excitement on the part of Apple
This newsletter is designed to provide a forum for users of FoxPro, Foxbase
+,
and Foxbase +/Mac to share information, perspectives, and techniques.
Please
note:
This group has no formal Connection with
Fox
Software,
Inc..
Opinions expressed and liberties taken herein are the sole responsibility of the direct perpetrators. Don’t blame Fox Software.
Meeting Place
Search: Kris Dahlin
All contents Copyright
1990
by the LA. Fox, unless indicated otherwise.
|
developers at the prospect of having a real database system on the Mac.
Did Apple assist you?
DF: We worked with at least
two
or three of the Apple evangelists along the way,
and
that
was
a very different experience for us. We hadn’t realized that technology could be a secular religion.
What sort of help were you able to get from them? What
was
that experience like?
DF: Simply, we got feedback that what we were doing wasn’t Mac-ish enough
and it wasn’t in fact. I think basically they espouse the virtues of the Mac interface, and they were providing inputs that they didn’t like a programming language lying Uflderneath things, and so on.
I would say that their encouragement was more along the lines of encouraging us to get religion, or at least their particular religion.
Have you gotten It?
DF: I think so. We are the four original developers (We’ve since added several people to the team.) I think a lot of us went into this project with the idea that the Mac was just a grown-up version of the 128K toy that they sold a few years ago. We didn’t realize, first of all, the beauty of the graphic interface, and! don’t think we realized that the Mac!! is probably the most powerful machine available right now.
I guess! personally got religion when! was thinking about buying one of those hotrod 20-Mhz compact portables to use at home. It occurred to me that I didn’t personally care to own another DOS machine.
What’s your perception of the Mac marketplace now? How much development is being done on the Mac?
DF: I think the Mac market is one that is changing as you look at it right now. A lot of
people are developing Mac products
there’s a lot or activity on net-, working Macs with DOS m ac h i n e s Where Hughes Aircraft used to buy 10 percent Macs and 9U pcr-:
|
cent
DOS machines, rumor has it that the last
5,000
machines they’ve ordered have been half and half.
I
think
what’s
changing
the situation is the fact that the Mac II is a perfectly good modified data processing machine. You take an
8Mb
MacIl
with a 300Mb disk
drive on
it, and
you’ll probably have the most powerful desktop computer obtainable
right
now.
We see a resurgence of interest in the corporate community. Macs offer today the
graphical interface
in a mature
form
that !BM is
promising
somedaywith Presentation Manager.
Does the 68000 offer you a significant advantage over
the
8086 or
80286?
DF: It
doesn’t
offer any speed advantage, but what it does offer is
linear
address space. That makes a huge, huge difference. !t eliminates so much of the klutziness, really, of the
existing
DOS applications. On the DOS side it’s not
going
to get to
that
point until you’re
running
in the
80386 mode.
EC: One of the strengths of FoxBASE has always been
its ability
to
buffer large amounts
of
databases
and indexes in memory. Now, with the large address space of the 68000, we can do more of that than ever before. It can just haul
things
into memory
and
that’s it. It runs very, very quickly from that point and that’s something that’s
just
not possible under DOS.
The major challenge we face in porting
this
new
technology
back to DOS is
making
it fit in
640K That’s
a huge problem. I think it’s a major
performance difficulty
for DBASE IV: it’s not
really a 640K program.
How
practical
is the Mac as a programming
platform?
DF: We are working on our next
continued on page 4
|
$10
I
Issue
|
|
2
|
|
LA. FOX
|
|
|
2 |
|