History
Silver Surfer as it was known during early development was developed by Laurent Ribardière in 1984. Following negotiations with Ribardiere it was planned that Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer Inc) would publish the software but Apple canceled the plan, reputedly due to pressure from other potential database publishers who claimed that if Apple had their own 'brand' database, 3rd party products would be disadvantaged in the marketplace. Apple was keen at the time to ensure well known software publishers supported the Macintosh platform and as a result, the project reverted to Laurent Ribardière, who partnered with the well known French businesswoman, Marylene Delbourg-Delphis, to publish 4th Dimension. Although independently published, Apple supported the new venture and used 4D extensively throughout the organization for diverse projects from fitness center management to CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing). A number of Apple personnel became 4D experts, notably Lance McAndrew in Apple's Cupertino headquarters and Andrew O'Donoghue in Apple's Irish based European manufacturing headquarters, where a 4th Dimension application managed the entire European Service Center administration. This support by Apple undoubtedly helped the product to mature and gain traction in a difficult marketplace.
Over the next few years 4th Dimension's installed base grew and the publisher ACI, established a US based subsidiary ACIUS, initially led by Guy Kawasaki.
In 1993, 4D Server, the client/server version of 4th Dimension was introduced and since 1995, 4D has supported both the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems.
Read more about this topic: 4th Dimension (software)
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