4th Dimension (software)

4th Dimension (software)

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. 4D was created in 1984.

4th Dimension Software should not be mistaken for a similarly named Israeli company, which had to be renamed in the mid-1990s to New Dimension Software. That Israeli software vendor (flagship product CONTROL-M) was acquired in 1999 by BMC Software, Inc.

The 4D product line has since expanded to an SQL front-end, integrated compiler and several productivity plug-ins and interfaces. Some of the plug-ins created by 4D themselves 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 popular applications of 4D is as a web server. Having a web server and a compiled application running as one gives developers the ability to create efficient, dynamic web sites with a high level of adaptability, and security.

Today, 4D is published by the French company 4D SAS and has a sales, distribution and support presence in most major markets, with the US, UK and France being the primary markets. The product is localized in more than a dozen languages, including English, French, German, Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, Korean and Persian.