gimme second… 4D… this 4D with Primabase Database for Mac in the 1990iers? Which was used by Pagemaker as Backend for creating data-driven (printed) catalogues?
A no, i am mixing this together… 4D was the dev framework for the business apps we used on classic MacOS 8 and 9 before X Aqua arrived:
yep. 4d.
the times have changed since aldus was a thing.
now it’s very desktop cross or multi-platform. one project, both mac and win (they added win in 3.x, even though it was originally just someone’s compatibility overlay. it worked, but it was not great). in, i think, v11 they built the engine native in win, which vastly improved speed.
just to give you an idea of how cross/multi it is for desktop, we do most of our development on macs, but we deploy almost exclusively to win, but our devs also use our apps, on macs, but everything just works on both. we don’t change anything or write anything differently for one platform vs. the other. the only thing we do, sometimes, is make fields a little larger or a little taller, because win renders fonts slightly differently than macs do.
there is probably a linux server version, that they aren’t talking about, because qodly, their alpha/beta low-code web dev tool, runs in aws, and there is no way they are going to pay hosting for win on aws.
in v.17, they added ORDA, a new syntax for using object syntax to conduct database business. then they have added more and more object syntax throughout the entire language, finally. it’s only been 35 years since the first time that someone asked for it.
what they did when they added OO syntax was just bolt it on to the existing engine, so you can use one or the other, or, sometimes, both, and then throw in some raw SQL, if you like, just because.
i think 4d has been surprised by the uptake since the introduced ORDA and the OO syntax. the old ways and the old syntax are not discussed, very often, because the object syntax is so much more enjoyable and easy to use.
I guess you saved nerves with this decision 
4D gives me a bit of PTSD from college.
Its what we used to see how many demerits we had. 
I stopped working at the company that used it quite widely
It was a contract position I had while the company made a big transition
They were in the midst of moving off of Sybase, Macs and Vaxes and onto Oracle Java & Suns kind of in one giant swoop
It took years to rewrite all the 4D/Sybase apps into Java/Oracle
I wrote a lot of Java then since I could read the 4D and turn it into Java
interesting. i was at TRW’s world HQ, right out of B school. it was primarily 4d + sybase, as well. if i recall, it owned a piece of both companies.
I remember our corporate business app named top job, i had to enter every 15 min of programming work into it and i’ve hated it pretty much. basically every working hour was followed by 1/2 hour giving report in this crap software… like you I left this company even when I get less money in my new job back in the late 1990ies.
I left in 94 and went back on contract in late 98 as they embarked on this giant project top replace everything
Stayed there on contract 4 years as they worked on it
Best part is I replaced 9 people who went to work on the project so hourly was VERY good (even now it would be really quite good still)
we’re old I guess 
naaa we are not old. Okay there are kids around naming me grandpa but we are NOT OLD
you’re only old if you think you’re old
and then there is the saying
Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.
May be you are correct I may be misreading it.
But from what I see paying $500 per year not a big amount for a single developer for being able to develop for Xplatform and web.
For me there a quite a few tools that I have used over and over to build robust desktop and web apps. One of my favorite for desktop and mobile app is WinDev and for web apps is Frappe Framework.
If the pricing model that you have explained applies then it is truly absurd. Such a product is just unusable.
But one thing is clear at least they are updating/evolving their product(s) regularly. On the other hand look at Xojo. It is hardly evolving.
Before M chipset series of Mac were released I used to use a tool called XeroCoder where we did not have to write one line of code to build app for Mobile and Desktop and Web (have to host on their server called grid++). But sadly it is a dead product now.
All that you are suggesting was possible in XeroCoder but it died a sudden dusty death.
gcc?
And a fee per month and 5% application fee. Really funny. I have to pay for every sell of my controlling app for medical devices around 180 Bucks. With a bit more than 1000 users…holymoly. That is cheap.
Don’t forget the accounting costs!
are you sure? ignore the hype. i would suggest that you list the delivered updates and evolutions that have occurred, over the last ten years, or even the last five years. then let’s discuss.
ooof, thats a disappointing reflection.
Looking on Java, Vaadin, JavaFX, JavaSwing, Spring Framework and so many more I would say: winner. And looking on the reliability: winner. And by the way: you can have all of this for free of charge. Desktop, Web, mobile.
