What is 4th Dimension 2.x?

It is a tribute to the public relations skills of Guy Kawasaki — former Mac software evangelist with Apple, now leading the 4th Dimension crusade — that this large, complex, and sophisticated package has been the subject of constant speculation and comment in the Macintosh press for more than a year. Even before its release, as the mysterious entity code-named Silver Surfer, 4th Dimension was the subject of more headlines than any actually released program.

The excitement over 4th Dimension has been caused by Acius's promise of complete control of your Mac databa.se system. 4th Dimension delivers on that promise, with all that the phrase complete control implies. Somewhere in its 1056 pages of documentation and pounds of technical notes lie the commands required to do nearly anything that can be done with a Mac. For databases, this means flexibility of data entry screens and report forms, and sophisticated constructs, for example, scrolling clickable lists for data access ...

Although it’s possible to plod along in the User environment of 4th Dimension without appreciating much of its scope, the Custom and Design environments are where the program shows its value. Mastering these environments is not a trivial matter, but many developers feel the results are worth the effort because these environments offer superior flexibility ... “You can make it do anything you want” is the verdict reached by all 4th Dimension developers I interviewed. Of the five products in this group, 4th Dimension has the steepest learning curve (“You live with the manual in your lap,” remarked one developer). And commercial applications from developers have appeared on the market relatively slowly.

Unfortunately, when a development tool gives programmers a great deal of control, it invokes in me a response straight out of my high school civics class: with freedom comes responsibility. While it is nearly impossible to produce a crashable application within the limits, for example, of Blyth Software’s Omnis Express, Acius concocted a miniature five-record demo program that managed to crash in front of dozens of journalists at a major trade show. Aside from the ability to create beautiful custom applications, power carries a certain amount of danger. But it also implies scope: in complex applications that interface with mainframes and exotic minis, 4th Dimension has an impressive track record. These communications possibilities are further explored in applications that can be successfully updated and modified by modem.

Although not to the extent first reported, 4th Dimension is another Iron Law victim. Deplorably slow benchmark times for file import and searching in 4th Dimension (some developers feel it should only be recommended for 68020-based Macs) are the result of poky disk-access routines, not intrinsic problems with labyrinthine file structure (a frequent culprit in rich database environments). Developers have ingeniously worked around these problems while waiting for Acius to finish its promi.sed speed fix-up. Despite competition and notorious speed problems, 4th Dimension remains the database of choice for a class of application solutions that calls for extreme flexibility.

Seiter, Charles. (October 1988). A Full House. Macworld. (pgs. 144-145).

Download 4th Dimension 2.x for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac