FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software by Kerry Nietz

Flash backs from the past! It's truly amazing to discover that software development from freshman to senior level as well as project management hasn't changed that much. Kerry Nietz describes his memoir from his final year at college to his first job at Fox Software to 'an early retirement' at Microsoft. This title also brought his other fictional novels to my attention.

Once again here is the review I published on Amazon:

Built to last!

I have been around in software development for more than a decade now but honestly I have to admit it is only now that I took the opportunity to read about the history of my used to be primary programming language. In fact, I started with Visual FoxPro 6 back in 1999 and went only down to FoxPro for Windows 2.6 during migration projects - long after the stories described in this title. It is really interesting to see how they actually managed to create a great product with such a small team of developers.

"Create the best Report Writer in the world, out of only sawdust, bubblegum, and dreams." - That's the best sentence I'm going to quote from this title in the future. An inspiration to achieve the impossible, only by taking small steps. Just begin the journey - one step after the next one. If you fall, stand up and continue to walk.

Kerry takes the reader on an amazing trip through almost 4 years working at a small software company in Perrysburg, Ohio. That went from a another 'look-alike' of the mighty Ashton-Tate dBase to the leading force in database development, long before Microsoft Access (project name: Cirrus) was even finished. It survived Borland Paradox and even nowadays Visual FoxPro is still in daily use in thousands of companies world-wide. Actually, I'm glad that I had the chance to foster my programming knowledge with Visual FoxPro.

After his excellent work in software development, Kerry went for a second career as a writer. I'm looking forward to read his other titles soon:

Updates

Read my review about 'A Star Curiously Singing' by Kerry Nietz.