an innovative programming language the Paradox Application Language (PAL) that was readable, powerful, and could be recorded from keyboard actions (rather like Lotus 1-2-3 macro recording). effective use of memory (conventional as well as extended / expanded) - caching data tables, and particularly indexes, which caused Paradox to execute tasks very quickly in contrast to the explicit skills required for xBase performance optimisation. The features that distinguished Paradox/DOS were: a visual Query by Example implementation that was supported by an AI engine. Other notable competitors were Clarion, DataEase, R:Base, and DataFlex.
At that time, dBase and its xBase clones (Foxpro, Clipper) dominated the market. Paradox/DOS was a successful DOS-based database of the late eighties and early nineties. Version 4.0 and 4.5 were retooled in the Borland C++ windowing toolkit and used a different extended memory access scheme. Versions up to 3.5 were evolutions from 1.0. Notable classic versions were 3.5 and 4.5. In September 1987, Borland purchased Ansa Software, including their Paradox/DOS 2.0 software. Paradox for DOS was a relational database management system originally written by Richard Schwartz and Robert Shostak, and released by their company Ansa Software in 1985.
