Para Dox

Database product from Borland. Originally DOS based, became "ParaDox for Windows" for a few versions.

Characterized by having lots of files which got corrupted - compare MicrosoftAccess which just had one file that got corrupted.

• Which is worse? I suppose if you keep good file backups, one big failure is preferred because you know the restored version will have time-coordinated tables. With multiple table files, they may be out of sync if you restore a single table. However, being out of sync may be preferable over data loss in some cases. I have only limited experience with ParaDox so cannot say what typically gets hosed.

Came with (in the Windows version) a (gobsmackingly slow) semi-interpreted Pascalish OO language for development, a GUI builder [1] and a report engine which when combined with early Windows print driver idiosyncrasies reduced many developers to tears. At the time, it was fairly advanced - MicrosoftAccess lagged behind it in features for some time - but it suffered from being extraordinarily slow while running code or painting GUIs.

Borland Database Engine was later used as the basic database system for the early versions of Delphi, in the same way Jet got used for the base option database for VisualBasic.

[1] Which was immediately obvious because it used BorlandButtons

-- KatieLucas

It appears that MicrosoftAccess was influenced fairly heavily by this tool. Microsoft probably got a leg up by using native Windows code to give it more snap. Another case of MS using its near-monopoly as its primary weapon.

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CategoryDatabase