4th Dimension

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4th Dimension, 4D or Silver Surfer is relational database management software and Integrated Development Environment (IDE) developed by Laurent Ribardière in 1984 then released for Apple Macintosh in 1987.

Following negotiations with Ribardiere it was planned that Apple would publish the software but they changed their mind because of marketplace concerns. Laurent Ribardière with the French businesswoman Marylene Delbourg-Delphis published 4th Dimension, however, Apple supported the new venture and used it for, for example, fitness center management and CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing). Apple had 4D experts, and 4th Dimension managed the Apple European Service Center administration.

The publisher ACI (Analyses Conseils Informations), established a US-based subsidiary ACIUS, initially led by Guy Kawasaki.

Described as "a revolutionary combination of power, customizability, and ease of use for the analysis and control of large amounts of information. It combines layout graphics, multiuser, runtime, programming language, and application customization capabilities to take full advantage of the graphics, networking and color features of the Macintosh family."

Design the structure of your database > Write procedures with either flowchart or listing editors > Add custom menus > Create your input and output forms > Enter and store data including pictures.

Specification: Up to 16M records; 99 data files accessible at once;Unlimited number of links; 511 fields per file; 511 Subfiles per file; 511 subfields per subfile.

Programming can be done in the Flowchart Editor or using a structured language similar to PASCAL comprising structures for sequence; branch; loop; external routines in another language; global and local variables.

Version: 1.04 1987