Sorry, no idea about current usage but it’s a real trip down memory lane. DBase had a lot to do with my career change from parks and recreation administration to computer programming.
Quite a career change on your part. It reminds me of my dentist from years back. His name was Dr. Honey. He changed careers from being a dentist to being a park ranger.
Me thinks the dot prompt disappeared after dBase IV v2.0. Which is unfortunate because I like the dot prompt. I guess it's for the same reason I like the command line in OSes too. Love the "interactiveness" of the dot prompt. Instant gratification!
Why Borland didn't make the dot prompt an option and accessible in later version, I'll never understand. The command window just takes up too much space on an 80 x 25 screen.
Two things I'm trying to figure out in dBase for DOS now that's running in DOSBox-X in Win10:
1. How to print directly to the printer (not just to a text file)
2. How to expand the screen from 80 x 25 to something larger. I wish there was a way to have more that 80 columns.
I haven't touched a dbase file in.... a couple months.
It is common for map data to be distributed in "Shape Files". Each map layer has it's own set of shape files. For example, street centerlines.... the shape files are a set of files. One for the config, One for the index, one for the coordinates, and YUP one dbase IV file for the attributes. The dBase file contains things like street name, house number range, etc...
Shape files themselves are pretty old.
Personally, I think dBase files are still sticking around because, in some way, they are super easy to deal with and compatible with lots of things. For example, every modern spreadsheet application can open them.
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