FoxTales
by Kerry Nietz · first published 2003
13mentions
6recommended by
8HN commenters
2013–2026first – last mentioned
75% recommend25% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
"FoxTales" by Kerry Nietz is also a good read. Kerry talks about his experiences joining FoxPro development as a freshout college grad. I never cared all that much for FoxPro/xbase, but the book is a good read.…
on “Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2” ↗…to a port to the original Mac GUI which necessitated it). Excellent product, extremely wide adoption for building business applications until FoxPro 2.6 for DOS. For a detailed history of FoxPro, read FoxTales by Kerry Nietz. Anyone who's used dBase/Clipper/FoxPro would find it deeply enjoyable!
on “The History of FoxPro: Interview with Wayne Ratliff (1986)” ↗It took me longer than I'd like to admit to get around to reading it, but that book's an absolute classic if you like the story of how things are built. A few others: * Kerry Nietz - FoxTales (FoxPro, mostly pre-Microsoft) * Mary Walton - Car: A Drama of the American Workplace * Chase Morsey Jr. - The Man Who Saved the V8 (Ford's flathead V8) * Dealers of Lightning (Xerox PARC) Related…
on “Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)” ↗…developers wrote a great behind-the-scenes book about the software and the company culture, uptil their acquisition by Microsoft. It is one of the more niche, under-appreciated technology books out there: "FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software" by Kerry Nietz FoxPro was originally FoxBase, a clone of dBase III, and in some respects better than dBase - IIRC, it could handle larger files, and worked better…
on “Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)” ↗FoxTales sounds like an interesting book; thanks! http://amzn.com/dp/B005KUH4GI
on “Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?” ↗…other social consequences) Ardor: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20931250-ardor if you ever wanted to understand ancient indian philosophy. Heavy read, not recommended for fun but more as quest FoxTales: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/412167.Foxtales about how software was developed in the midwest free of all the fashion/hipsterism currently in vogue and building a community of users for your software…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of all time, and why?” ↗FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software by Kerry Nietz. It is about the development of FoxPro, the late 80s massively successful xBase clone that was acquired by Microsoft. Programmers At Work by Susan Lammers…
on “Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint (2012) [pdf]” ↗FoxTales was a really great read! I loved it and I only ever tinkered with dBase and never used Clipper or FoxPro.
on “The History of FoxPro: Interview with Wayne Ratliff (1986)” ↗…just one post of a number in the pre-history of FoxPro detailing the rise of dBase. Many of the others pertain to FoxPro. http://www.foxprohistory.org/tableofcontents.htm I agree with you about the FoxTales book. It was a great read.
on “The History of FoxPro: Interview with Wayne Ratliff (1986)” ↗You might want to check out the book "FoxTales : Behind the Scenes at Fox Software" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005KUH4GI
on “I'm writing a history of Visual Basic, Chapter 1 is up” ↗…created is an elegant solution. When you finaly go public, may you all cash out as rich as Bill Gates. Please thank all the Fox folks for me. Charles -- "Letter from a FoxPro admirer". FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software, Kerry Nietz.
on “Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?” ↗Hey all -- A friend mentioned this discussion, so I thought I'd drop in to say "Hi" and "Thanks" to those of you who've purchased my book, Foxtales. That was an interesting time to be alive. Now decades later, I still occasionally have dreams (nightmares?) where I'm back coding for Fox again. Hope you enjoy my experience. Kerry Nietz
on “Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)” ↗…very little about the internals and technology of it. That's fine, but for my tastes, the book that it really was, was less captivating than it could have been. My default is to expect the same from the FoxTales book.
on “I'm writing a history of Visual Basic, Chapter 1 is up” ↗