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FOCUS from Information Builders Inc.

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by makita_92 1 view

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Hi,

I was wondering if anyone can give some history information for FOCUS. Or where I can look?

Thanks

4 replies

by amcol

Focus got its start in the early 1970's. At that prehistoric, pre-PC, mainframe only time, there were three main products in the DBMS genre...Focus from IBI, Ramis from Mathematica, and Nomad from National CSS. (I don't count IBM products like VSAM or ISAM because they weren't DBMS's, and if I remember right DB/2 was yet on the horizon.)

I can go on about this in excrutiating detail since I worked for one of those vendors for a number of years during that time and am very familiar with that marketplace and era.

What else, if anything, do you want to know? And I'm curious...why are you asking?

by makita_92

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply!

I am doing an online course and I had to pick a specialized programming language. I have to give it a brief history of the language, developers etc. I seen the name somewhere and thought that I would try something different to right on!

Do you know I can get some online documents for Focus Software?

Thanks again

by amcol

Try their website, IBI.COM. Do a Google search. Call the company, ask for the marketing department...I'm sure they have all kinds of stuff they'll be happy to send you (they're headquartered in NYC).

How aggressive are you? Call them and ask for Gerry Cohen. He's the CEO and founder. Grew up in Queens NY, went to Queens College, founded IBI in the mid-1960's, does a lot of industry shows, usually willing to talk with folks. You'll probably get shunted to some EVP, but it's worth a try.

Depending on the nature of your course assignment you might want to pick a different language. It's a lot easier to find material on Cobol or Fortran, although I don't think I'd characterize either one as "specialized".

For Fortran look for material on Dan McCracken, for Cobol do research on Admiral Grace Hopper. If you want any more information post back.

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