Editing Helix (database) (section)

==History==

Originally created by '''Odesta Corporation''' of Northbrook, IL in 1983 on the original Macintosh, Helix debuted to rave reviews when it was first released in late 1984.

At that time the Mac only supported 400 kB [[floppy disk]]s as storage. Users initially ran Helix from a floppy disk with Helix installed on the “system disk”, which was where the [[operating system]] lived before the age of hard disk storage. This configuration left little room for applications or data. It was assumed that users would add a second floppy drive for any sort of real-world use, with the OS and Helix on one floppy, and data on another. In spite of these initial limitations, Helix was a powerful [[relational database]].

In May 1986, Odesta released '''Double Helix'''. The main new feature set allowed for the construction of custom menus and menu bars, resulting in “stand-alone” applications. In comparison, the original Helix produced applications that were clearly running within Helix. Released as a part of a larger suite of software, the Helix suite also included a stand-alone [[run-time system|runtime]] version known as '''RunTime Helix''' which would allow users to run Double Helix applications without the full version installed, as well as '''MultiUser Helix''' which operated in a [[client–server]] fashion.

Upgrades to the Helix product line were continuous during the 1980s, but the company spent a tremendous amount of time and money working on a version known as '''Remote Helix''' which ran the basic Helix development system on top of [[VAX]] based databases. The idea was to offer a Mac-like experience on "[[big iron (computing)|big iron]]" systems, a common theme in the early 1990s. The company also released a number of related tools, '''GeoQuery''' and '''Data Desk''', for analyzing databases. However it wasn’t long before the popularity of the VAX faded, and the product was never a major success.

In 1992 Odesta split up, with the original Helix applications being spun off. Double Helix re-emerged as '''Helix Express''' at '''Helix Technologies''', marketed as a performance leader as opposed to "easy to use". The parent company became entangled in an unrelated but costly legal battle, and Helix languished. In 1998, Helix Technologies was purchased by The Chip Merchant, a San Diego–based memory vendor, who released a major upgrade in 2000, adding TCP/IP capabilities to Helix Client/Server and improving the performance of the entire product line significantly. However, falling memory prices and a slumping economy combined to drive The Chip Merchant into bankruptcy in 2002, sending Helix into legal limbo. It was purchased in 2004 by two of the people who were running its day-to-day operations, Gil Numeroff and Matt Strange, with financial backing from an unnamed businessman and long-time Helix user, forming a new company: '''QSA ToolWorks'''.

QSA brought Helix co-creator Larry Atkin back into the Helix fold and later brought back Steve Keyser, the original architect of MultiUser Helix. Dubbed the ''Helix Recovery Team'', this new management and programming team began the task of rewriting the Classic Helix products to run natively under [[Mac OS X]]. The OS X Helix Server, along with three native diagnostic and maintenance tools, shipped in December 2005.

One month later, Apple announced the first products based on their switch from [[PowerPC]] to [[Intel]] processors, causing QSA to have to “switch gears” and begin the process of converting their code to [[Universal Binary]] format. This forced a conversion from the [[CodeWarrior]] [[Integrated development environment|IDE]] to [[Xcode]], after which they produced Intel-native releases of their three “[[end user]]” products. Early versions (known as “Preview Releases”) were feature incomplete and unstable, but frequent updates (five in 2008 alone) addressed these issues. Nine more updates in 2009 and 2010 focused on completing the feature set, eradicating remaining bugs and improving performance.

At the same time, QSA started work on bringing the Helix IDE (known as “Helix RADE”) to OS X. Originally announced in December 2009 the project went by the code name of ''Europa'', as an oblique reference to the movie [[2010 (film)|''2010'']].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.qsatoolworks.com/tlw/2009/dec31.html | title=The Latest Word: Something's Going to Happen… }}</ref>  In June 2011, QSA began shipping ″Preliminary Releases″ — versions with some, but not all of the features ported to OS X.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.qsatoolworks.com/tlw/2011/jun10.html | title=The Latest Word: Right This Way: Helix RADE Comes to macOS (6.2 PR1) }}</ref> The porting of features continued through to completion in June 2013.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.qsatoolworks.com/tlw/2013/jun10.html | title=The Latest Word: Helix RADE 6.2: The Preliminaries Are over }}</ref>

In September 2022, QSA Toolworks sold the Helix family of software to New Mexico–based Big Giant Donut Inc., a firm that had implemented Helix-based solutions at several manufacturing and technology companies.<ref> With Acquisition of Helix Software from QSA Toolworks, Big Giant Donut Bets Big on No- Code App Development's Appeal to a New Generation, 1 September 2022 [https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/with-acquisition-of-helix-software-from-qsa-toolworks-big-giant-donut-bets-big-on-no--code-app-developments-appeal-to-a-new-generation-301616424.html]</ref> Larry Atkin and Steve Keyser joined Big Giant Donut to work on a new software platform called “Donut”, based on Helix concepts.<ref>[https://www.biggiantdonut.com]</ref> Donut is intended to run on modern 64-bit hardware and to run client software within a browser. As they work on this, Big Giant Donut has made the most recent versions of the Helix software downloadable from their website for free.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.biggiantdonut.com/helix-downloads | title=Helix Software Downloads }}</ref>