Paradox and Dbase were 4GL systems that were supposed to enable end user programming. I remember being told that because of these systems - most applications going forward wouldn't need a programmer at all. Utimitely doomed by visual basis and MS accesse because no one wrote addons to do special functions like barcodes, PDF or connect to mainframe applications in the way say Visual Basic could. PowerBuilder and Cold Fusion when the web boom came completely made the tool irrelevant.