[ghshephard]

I vividly recall in the late 80s, sinking a huge chunk of my total net worth at the time (just out of high school) into dBASE IV. I had made tons of money doing small consulting jobs on dBase III+ - knew it inside and out, and was looking forward to the new platform - good lord, it had SQL.

I still recall the night I picked up the massive package, unpacked the 5 1/4" floppies, started it on my 286 (I don't even think I had a HD in 1988) and ... It didn't work. The most basic straightforward functions in then manual failed to perform the way they were documented. I was certain that it had to be my computer, because there was no possible way that Ashton Tate could ship a product, beautifully packaged, and documented that was just ... broken? And Slow.

I'd forgotten how tragic that loss was (it was a lot of money for me ).

I have to believe that whatever processes or behavior that led up to that was the trigger for the downfall of Ashton Tate.