[AccessD] I was not going to post this

"Hal" - any connection to...   ??

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Saturday, March 02, 2013 11:38 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] I was not going to post this

You're both right and also wrong. Visical was the first player in the game.
Lotus was second, and kicked Visicalc's ass. But neither of these compares
to dBASE-II, and the absolutely brilliant ad created by Hal Pollock, about
the bilge pump. Wayne was a genius, he wrote the whole thing in assembly and
it ran comfortably in 64k. It was originally called Vulcan but somebody
threatened him with a lawsuit, and Hal came to the table with a new name,
dBASE-II. As it happens, I was the first journalist to land interviews with
both of these folks. And yes, Visicalc made a huge impact, but dBASE-II made
a larger one.

Incidentally, for those into nomenclature, I asked Hal why it was called
dBASE-II and he said, and although that interview was about 30 years ago, I
think that I can quote him accurately, "Because dBASE One would have sounded
like a virgin product."

Arthur

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