[netcoyote]

I managed to land my first programming job in DBase for the UCLA admissions office while still a student. On the first day the departing “engineer” (a graduating senior) showed me the application.

It was essential for the department to function, but had grown into an abomination as many students worked on it.

In particular, the app barely fit in memory so this enterprising student had updated all the code so each command was shortened from the full name to the first four letters, which DBase would accept as valid. Then removed all the comments and extra white space!

This kluge apparently afforded enough extra memory that the app could run!

I noped out of there, and referred my friend for the job. (Sorry Jeff!)

DBase was really useful in some situations, but like all programming tools it could be badly misused!