On 2008-11-25 14:59, George Ledo wrote:
Oh, man, does this bring back memories!

Back around 1989, when I thought I was interested in programming, and doing a fair amount of database work for my employer, I started writing an app for magicians and similar entertainers. At the time, its trial name was "Track3" because it was designed to manage three separate things: customers, gigs (the calendar), and show makeup, i.e., the "list of effects" in each show. Everything was tied together, so you could get anywhere from anywhere else easily and quickly, even to punching a button to generate a thank-you note to a customer.

This was right around the time Windows was getting known but a lot of people were still using DOS. I decided to stay with DOS, so I wrote the thing in Clipper, which required compiling the code every time you made a change. I used Word 5 as the editor and had a couple of batch files to automate the compiling process.

I probably still have a copy somewhere. The thing had drop-down menus and everything. But like Jack said, I didn't go for done, I wanted to go for perfect. Ah, well, the computer field lost a guy and the theatrical design field got him back.

Geez, I feel like an old geezer talking about the ancient days: "Sonny, when I was your age, only huge corporations and the government had computers. They took up a huge room, and started at about a million dollars. And you practically had to be a rocket scientist to use them"