Several years ago ACI US introduced File Force, which was intended to lure the users of flat-file databases (Claris’s FileMaker, ProVue Development’s Panorama) into the relational world. 4D First is a second attempt at an entry-level product, and although it’s an improvement on File Force, it’s easier than the actual 4th Dimension only in the sense that it’s easier to cover the first 15 chapters of a textbook than the whole book. You can do interesting applications in 4D First, but you are unlikely to be doing them in your first week.
4D First is good news, however, for companies with a significant 4D investment, and also for developers. 4D First can be used as a replacement for 4D in a client-server setting using 4D Server. 4D First can open and modify applications created in 4D, and vice versa. Developers can use it as a run-time module replacing 4D’s run-time version, with the extra benefit that users can make simple modifications of database models themselves, if necessary. Essentially, 4D First is 4D with most of the programming capabilities removed.
For first-time database users, that is both 4D First’s strength and its weakness. You can easily set up database files, draw relations (one-to-one, one-to-many — in fact, all valid types) between files using easy graphics tools, and design report or data entry layouts using relatively straightforward tool palettes. 4D First supports various types of compression for image files. If you are familiar with 4D, or for that matter such now-defunct products as Borland Reflex or Ashton-Tate’s dBase Mac, the tools and methods will be just what you expected — the only difference is that 4D First is less expensive.
The weakness is that ACI US’s main concession to beginners is simply to leave out some advanced elements of 4D. The tiny (4-by-7-inch) manuals offer a subset of the usual 4D manuals — there’s no equivalent of a 4D for Dimmies pamphlet. There are no specifics on troubleshooting. There’s no online help; the only reference to Help in the manuals tells you how to add balloon help to your own applications. The Quick Report feature is easy to use, but it doesn’t offer Print Preview. The samples and tutorial files don’t provide enough canned solutions for common business situations (some of them seem to have been quickly put together and don’t display properly).
If you’re already part of the 4D universe, you will welcome 4D First. It’s a lowcost way to distribute the power of real 4D and 4D Server to an office full of Macs. If you’re a FileMaker Pro user looking to step up from a flat-file database to a relational database, 4D First is a reasonable place to start, but it won’t do your database homework for you.
Seiter, Charles. (May 1994). 4D First 1.0. Macworld. (pg. 83).
ACI
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
7 / 
2021-11-28 / 
145d0b0543426a46bb7084e1f3307194a45976b3 / 
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4D_First.toast
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
