History
Originally created by Odesta Corporation in 1983 on the original Macintosh, Helix received rave reviews when it was released the next year. At the time the Mac only supported 440kB floppy disks as storage, shared with the operating system and leaving little room for applications or data. It was assumed that users would add a second floppy for any sort of real-world use, with the OS and Helix on one floppy, and data on another. Leaving room for a maximum database size of under 500k, Helix's data management capabilities did not need to be all that strong. Nevertheless it was a full relational database.
In May 1986 Odesta released Double Helix for $495. The main new feature set allowed for the construction of custom menus and menu bars, resulting in "stand-alone" applications. In comparison, the original Helix produced applications that were clearly running within Helix, much as a Microsoft Word document is clearly running "inside Word". Released as a part of a larger suite of software, the Helix suite also included a stand-alone runtime version known as RunTime Helix which would allow users to run Double Helix applications without the full version installed, as well as MultiUser Helix which operated in a client–server fashion.
Upgrades to the Helix product line were continuous during the 1980s, but the company spent a tremendous amount of time and money working on a version known as Remote Helix which ran the basic Helix development system on top of VAX based databases. The idea was to offer a Mac-like experience on "big iron" systems, a common theme in the early 1990s. The company also released a number of related tools, GeoQuery and Data Desk, for analyzing databases. However it wasn't long before the average Mac could outperform a minicomputer, the popularity of the VAX faded, and the product was never a major success.
In 1992 Odesta split up, with the original Helix applications being spun off. Double Helix re-emerged as Helix Express at Helix Technologies, marketed as a performance leader as opposed to "easy to use". Unfortunately, the parent company became entangled in an unrelated but costly legal battle, and Helix languished. In 1998, Helix Technologies was purchased by The Chip Merchant, a San Diego based memory vendor, who released a major upgrade in 2000, adding TCP/IP capabilities to Helix Client/Server and improving the performance of the entire product line significantly. However, falling memory prices and a slumping economy combined to drive The Chip Merchant into bankruptcy in 2002, sending Helix into legal limbo. It was purchased in 2004 by two of the people who were running its day-to-day operations, Gil Numeroff and Matt Strange, with financial backing from a unnamed businessman and long-time Helix user, forming a new company: QSA ToolWorks.
QSA brought Helix co-creator Larry Atkin back into the Helix fold and later brought back Steve Keyser, the original architect of MultiUser Helix. Dubbed the Helix Recovery Team, this new management and programming team began the task of rewriting the Classic Helix products to run natively under Mac OS X. The OS X Helix Server, along with three native diagnostic and maintenance tools, shipped in December 2005.
One month later, Apple announced the first products based on their switch from PowerPC to Intel processors, causing QSA to "switch gears" and begin the process of converting their code to Universal Binary format. This forced a conversion from the CodeWarrior IDE to Xcode, after which they produced Intel-native releases of their three "end user" products. Early versions (known as "Preview Releases") were feature incomplete and unstable, but frequent updates (five in 2008 alone) addressed these issues. Nine more updates in 2009 and 2010 focused on completing the feature set, eradicating remaining bugs and improving performance.
As of this writing (March 2011) QSA is focused on bringing the Helix IDE (known as "Helix RADE") to OS X. QSA has announced that complete AppleScript support will be part of Helix for the first time, addressing one of the primary complaints professional developers have had about Helix.
Read more about this topic: Helix (database)
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