Editing DBase (section)

===Ashton-Tate===
{{Main|Ashton-Tate}}

George Tate and Hal Lashlee had built two successful start-up companies: Discount Software, which was one of the first to sell PC software programs through the mail to consumers, and Software Distributors, which was one of the first wholesale distributors of PC software in the world. They entered into an agreement with Ratliff to market Vulcan, and formed [[Ashton-Tate]]{{sfn|Lammers|1986|pp=115-116}} (the name Ashton was chosen purely for marketing reasons) to do so. Ratliff ported Vulcan from PTDOS to [[CP/M]]. Hal Pawluk, who handled marketing for the nascent company, decided to change the name to the more business-like "dBASE". Pawluk devised the use of lower case "d" and all-caps "BASE" to create a distinctive name. Pawluk suggested calling the new product version two ("II") to suggest it was less buggy than an initial release. '''dBASE II''' was the result and became a standard CP/M application along with WordStar and SuperCalc.<ref>[http://www.foxprohistory.org/people_ashton.htm "Ashton-Tate People"], The History of FoxPro</ref>

In 1981, IBM commissioned a port of dBASE for the then-in-development PC. The resultant program was one of the initial pieces of software available when the IBM PC went on sale in the fall of 1981. dBASE was one of a few "professional" programs on the platform then, and became a huge success. The customer base included not only end-users, but an increasing number of "value added resellers", or VARs, who purchased dBASE, wrote applications with it, and sold the completed systems to their customers. The May 1983 release of '''dBASE II RunTime''' further entrenched dBASE in the VAR market by allowing the VARs to deploy their products using the lower-cost RunTime system.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

Although some critics stated that dBASE was difficult to learn, its success created many opportunities for third parties. By 1984, more than 1,000 companies offered dBASE-related application development, libraries of code to add functionality, applications using dBASE II Runtime, consulting, training, and how-to books. A company in San Diego (today known as Advisor Media) premiered a magazine devoted to the professional use of dBASE, '''Data Based Advisor'''; its circulation exceeded 35,000 after eight months.<ref name="chin19840409">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA72 | title=Firms grab for dBase II gold | magazine=[[InfoWorld]] | volume=6 |issue=15 | date=1984-04-09 | access-date=2015-02-04 | last=Chin |first=Kathy | pages=72–73}}</ref> All of these activities fueled the rapid rise of dBASE as the leading product of its type;<ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Reilly |first=Richard |date=26 September 1994 |title=dBASE 5.0 for Windows has a Big Engine, but Lacks Speed |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1994/09/26/dbase-50-for-windows-has-a-big-engine-but-lacks-speed/fa865dc2-fdd3-48d7-a9f0-38e2f820320a/ |access-date=8 July 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Magid |first=Lawrence |date=25 February 1988 |title=Ashton-Tate has a Likely Winner |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-02-25-fi-44843-story.html |access-date=8 February 2023 |website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> by early 1984 Ashton-Tate stated that it had sold more than 150,000 copies of dBASE II.<ref name="hart19840207">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knOwBOkBuYQC&pg=PA114 | title=The ABC's of dBASE II | magazine=[[PC Magazine]] |volume=3 |issue=2 | date=1984-02-07 | access-date=October 24, 2013 | last=Hart |first=Glenn A. | pages=114}}</ref>