{"slug": "foxpro", "name": "FoxPro", "category": "databases", "category_name": "Databases", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 8, "warners": 1, "score": 3.658, "rising": 1.35, "first": "2026-02-04", "latest": "2026-09-23", "why": "I cut my teeth on FoxPro 2.6 for DOS. You could really get things done in that environment.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I cut my teeth on FoxPro 2.6 for DOS. You could really get things done in that environment.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["FoxPro"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 797041712, "item_id": 49815107, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49815107", "by": "wila", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There's been a 64 bit version of FoxPro for years and years", "excerpt": "There's been a 64 bit version of FoxPro for years and years [1]. No, not the official VFP as released by Microsoft, but a version made by a well known VFP developer. Besides that I do know of some developers actually using this for building their software. No connections here, just know that it exists and is used and well before LLMs became the answer to everything. [1] https://www.baiyujia.com/vfpadvanced/f_vfpa_abo", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived"}, {"id": 796988112, "item_id": 49811757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49811757", "by": "peter_d_sherman", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "where the original FoxPro/dBase/xBase scripting language is used (because it was great!)", "excerpt": "Microsoft should open-source FoxPro, at least some version of it, because as of 2026, it has no commercial viability (no ability for it to make the company money) compared to say SQL Server, Access and/or Visual Basic with the appropriate back-end database drivers. If Visual FoxPro V9 (2007) is too late because there are unexpired patents or other issues, then Microsoft should open-source an earlier version. Even ope", "context": "", "use_case": "database and app development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived"}, {"id": 785369520, "item_id": 49085595, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49085595", "by": "mamcx", "date": "2026-07-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A good example of the actual tool is FoxPro and similar", "excerpt": "The Op identify well the problem and the idea of the solution but the implementation is typically dev oriented. A good example of the actual tool is FoxPro and similar (even better than MS Access based on the ideals of the article) and I observed being actually used by occasional \"developers\" that need more than Access/Vb/Excel. I'm on the hunt for it with https://tablam.org but the main major pain point is to bring ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "EYG: A Programming Language for Humans"}, {"id": 779075312, "item_id": 48692207, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48692207", "by": "psj", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I cut my teeth on FoxPro 2.6 for DOS. You could really get things done in that environment.", "excerpt": "Oh man, I love this. I cut my teeth on FoxPro 2.6 for DOS. You could really get things done in that environment. There were times in later years that I really missed that kind of all-in-one, fully-integrated system.", "context": "", "use_case": "database application development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WebBase-III \u2013 dBASE III rebuilt in the browser with its own interpreter"}, {"id": 779004944, "item_id": 48687809, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687809", "by": "mamcx", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I started with Foxpro 2.6 and it was a blast.", "excerpt": "Cool! I have this dream of revive this kind of spirit (https://tablam.org). I started with Foxpro 2.6 and it was a blast. One of the very cool things Fox allow us was to ship their ability to `CREATE FORM, CREATE REPORT, BROWSE, etc` so the users can customize the app with the same power as us. This is one of the most important advantages of ERPs and such made with Fox and is still unmatched.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WebBase-III \u2013 dBASE III rebuilt in the browser with its own interpreter"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 797019025, "item_id": 49813689, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813689", "by": "jasode", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Instead of FoxPro dev work being simple, it's complex!", "excerpt": ">, Visual FoxPro, Visual Basic, Flash. I used to think one day we will have something that is not only faster, easier and scalable replacement of those. A person's perspective on the older dev tools being \"superior\" to today's newer tools depends on the things they want to build. I had jobs working on Foxbase/FoxPro for DOS and migrated those apps to FoxPro for Windows, and Visual Basic 3.0 to 6.0 ... and I don't loo", "context": "worked on FoxPro and VB apps in the past", "use_case": "database app development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived"}]}], "who": [{"by": "Hasz", "context": "Sales calls against app modernization", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49811041", "date": "2026-09-23"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["database app development", "database and app development", "legacy system kept running", "database application development"], "compared": [{"slug": "visual-basic", "name": "Visual Basic", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "microsoft-excel", "name": "Microsoft Excel", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49808023", "title": "Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48656986", "title": "Show HN: WebBase-III \u2013 dBASE III rebuilt in the browser with its own interpreter", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49078463", "title": "EYG: A Programming Language for Humans", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48256597", "title": "Childhood Computing", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47707269", "title": "What Game Engines Know About Data That Databases Forgot", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46888441", "title": "AI Is Killing B2B SaaS", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 797041712, "item_id": 49815107, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49815107", "by": "wila", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There's been a 64 bit version of FoxPro for years and years", "excerpt": "There's been a 64 bit version of FoxPro for years and years [1]. No, not the official VFP as released by Microsoft, but a version made by a well known VFP developer. Besides that I do know of some developers actually using this for building their software. No connections here, just know that it exists and is used and well before LLMs became the answer to everything. [1] https://www.baiyujia.com/vfpadvanced/f_vfpa_abo", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived"}, {"id": 797019025, "item_id": 49813689, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813689", "by": "jasode", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Instead of FoxPro dev work being simple, it's complex!", "excerpt": ">, Visual FoxPro, Visual Basic, Flash. I used to think one day we will have something that is not only faster, easier and scalable replacement of those. A person's perspective on the older dev tools being \"superior\" to today's newer tools depends on the things they want to build. I had jobs working on Foxbase/FoxPro for DOS and migrated those apps to FoxPro for Windows, and Visual Basic 3.0 to 6.0 ... and I don't loo", "context": "worked on FoxPro and VB apps in the past", "use_case": "database app development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived"}, {"id": 796988112, "item_id": 49811757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49811757", "by": "peter_d_sherman", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "where the original FoxPro/dBase/xBase scripting language is used (because it was great!)", "excerpt": "Microsoft should open-source FoxPro, at least some version of it, because as of 2026, it has no commercial viability (no ability for it to make the company money) compared to say SQL Server, Access and/or Visual Basic with the appropriate back-end database drivers. If Visual FoxPro V9 (2007) is too late because there are unexpired patents or other issues, then Microsoft should open-source an earlier version. Even ope", "context": "", "use_case": "database and app development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived"}, {"id": 796976656, "item_id": 49811041, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49811041", "by": "Hasz", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Sometimes, you just need the stuff to keep working, with $20-and-a-roll-of-duct-tape-level budgets.", "excerpt": "haha, I used this exact example in sales calls to make the case against app modernization. Sometimes, you just need the stuff to keep working, with $20-and-a-roll-of-duct-tape-level budgets. My proposal was proxy layer sitting in between, running on something like k8s and written mostly by an LLM to provide a safe interface to queries against foxpro, with ratelimiting, query parsing, rest, whatever other business log", "context": "Sales calls against app modernization", "use_case": "legacy system kept running", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived"}, {"id": 785369520, "item_id": 49085595, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49085595", "by": "mamcx", "date": "2026-07-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A good example of the actual tool is FoxPro and similar", "excerpt": "The Op identify well the problem and the idea of the solution but the implementation is typically dev oriented. A good example of the actual tool is FoxPro and similar (even better than MS Access based on the ideals of the article) and I observed being actually used by occasional \"developers\" that need more than Access/Vb/Excel. I'm on the hunt for it with https://tablam.org but the main major pain point is to bring ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "EYG: A Programming Language for Humans"}, {"id": 779075312, "item_id": 48692207, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48692207", "by": "psj", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I cut my teeth on FoxPro 2.6 for DOS. You could really get things done in that environment.", "excerpt": "Oh man, I love this. I cut my teeth on FoxPro 2.6 for DOS. You could really get things done in that environment. There were times in later years that I really missed that kind of all-in-one, fully-integrated system.", "context": "", "use_case": "database application development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WebBase-III \u2013 dBASE III rebuilt in the browser with its own interpreter"}, {"id": 779004944, "item_id": 48687809, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687809", "by": "mamcx", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I started with Foxpro 2.6 and it was a blast.", "excerpt": "Cool! I have this dream of revive this kind of spirit (https://tablam.org). I started with Foxpro 2.6 and it was a blast. One of the very cool things Fox allow us was to ship their ability to `CREATE FORM, CREATE REPORT, BROWSE, etc` so the users can customize the app with the same power as us. This is one of the most important advantages of ERPs and such made with Fox and is still unmatched.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WebBase-III \u2013 dBASE III rebuilt in the browser with its own interpreter"}, {"id": 772576514, "item_id": 48286032, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48286032", "by": "insane_dreamer", "date": "2026-05-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "later FoxPro on an IBM AT", "excerpt": "As a child I helped my dad feed punchcards into an IBM mainframe. But the first computer I got to work on was an AppleIIc in 1985. I started out writing production apps in dBaseII for CP/M, and later FoxPro on an IBM AT, some Pascal. Still remember the first hard drive 5Mb of storage! What in the world was one to do with all that space, when WordStar fit on a single-sided 51/4 floppy. My first laptops were an Epson P", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Childhood Computing"}, {"id": 763365411, "item_id": 47710338, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710338", "by": "mamcx", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Check the dBase/FoxPro family. My nostalgia remember it fondly", "excerpt": "Check the dBase/FoxPro family. My nostalgia remember it fondly, and there was not disconnected in how everything worked (example: The forms were stored as tables, so you can do alike `SELECT * FROM form_name WHERE widget=`), and there was zero ORM. This is my aim https://tablam.org. BTW I worked in SpacetimeDB and I proudly say is half-way :)", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What Game Engines Know About Data That Databases Forgot"}, {"id": 750262624, "item_id": 46891414, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46891414", "by": "mschuster91", "date": "2026-02-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "In the 1990s there were people who thought OOP with point and click tools like FoxPro and Delphi", "excerpt": "> In the 1990s there were people who thought OOP with point and click tools like FoxPro and Delphi would make it so easy to create software that everything could be built in-house without expert programmers. The invention of SQL was supposed to eliminate roles like Report Writer and Data Analyst because now business people could just write their own queries \"in English\" and get back answers. And yet, precisely that h", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Is Killing B2B SaaS"}]}