Visual dBASE is the successor of
dBASE, the first
relational database developed for PCs. The first versions of VdB worked under
Windows 3.1, current versions require Windows 95/98/NT/2000. VdB has little to do with it
procedural predecessor. It is completely
object-oriented and
event-driven (in a good, easy-to-use way) and very powerful, although few people know it.
Inprise (formerly
Borland) has sold VdB to a company that consists of VdB's developers and fans. They are now working on a new version, partially
open-source, which is called dBASE 2000. The first version of dB2K has recently released, which mainly fixed bugs. dBASE (the company) is trying to make dBASE (the program) especially eligible for web applications.
I have been a VdB developer for 12 months and at the time, I really liked the language. It is certainly superior to shitty MS products like Access and Visual Basic. VdB also has a great user community which provides magnificent support in the dBASE newsgroups. If you need a more general-purpose language, however, you should try out Delphi.