4th Dimension (Software)

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4th Dimension (or 4D, or Silver Surfer, as it was known during early development) is a relational database management system and IDE developed by Laurent Ribardière in 1984. 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.

The 4D product line has since expanded to an SQL front-end, integrated compiler and several productivity plug-ins and interfaces. Some of the more useful plug-ins include 4D Write (a word processor), 4D Draw (to draw shapes), 4D View (somewhat like a spreadsheet, but with extra functionality) and 4D Internet Commands (which let you add all sorts of Internet related functionality to a database). There are also over 100 third-party plugins, free and commercial.

These days, one of the more popular uses of 4D is as a web server. Having the web server and a compiled application running as one gives developers the ability to create some very fast web sites with a high level of adaptability.

Today, 4D is published by the French company 4D SAS, but many countries have their own local distributor who can handle sales and support. The current version of the program is 4D v11 SQL Release 1 (11.1).