This article is the second of a three-part series exploring the history of Synergex. Missed article 1? Read 50 Years of Advancing Applications and Partnering for Success.

New media like MTV, hip-hop music, and the blockbuster film infuse popular culture globally. Deregulation and globalization transform business, powered by more-conservative economic policies: Reaganomics in the US and Thatcherism in Britain. Public health benefits from advancements such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), recombinant DNA, new biotech drugs, and immunosuppressants for improved transplant success. Meanwhile, the first reported cases of HIV/AIDS (1981) soon emerge into a global public-health emergency.

Welcome to the 80s.

Historians consider the 80s to be the transition point between two “super-eras” of the 20^th century (1945-1989 and 1989-present), linking the Cold War industrial era to the globalized digital age. This so-called “hinge” decade quietly reshapes the global system in ways that still define the 21^st century.

IBM launches the IBM Personal Computer in 1981, accelerating office computing, with the Apple Macintosh and its GUI following three years later. The birth of the early internet and the personal computer revolution foretell the huge role that digital technology will play in our lives and work.

And Synergex (then Digital Information Systems Corporation, or DISC) is on its way to becoming a superpower in business application portability.

Pioneering Cross-Platform Migration

The 80s are a busy time for Synergex and its DBL language.

DBL Version 1 is humming away on Digital Equipment Corporation’s (DEC’s) PDP-11s. Version 2 later runs on its RT-11/RSX-11/RSTS operating systems, as well as TSX[1] (on which DIBOL was not available). And the language is expanding. It now has an ISAM database, .INCLUDE, global storage definition, and fixed-length binary I/O. The availability of DEC’s VAX minicomputer system fires up the need for a Version 3 (which only runs on that platform).

Meanwhile, enterprise applications are becoming hot.

Early, visionary customers developing DEC-based business applications—including Effective Management Systems (EMS) (manufacturing) and RCC (timeshare resorts)—want to move to emerging Unix platforms. So, the Synergex team weighs their next step.

Lead developer (guardian angel?) Rod Creason lobbies hard for rewriting DBL from assembly language to C (instead of Pascal), to further improve portability and performance. Fortunately, he gets his wish, likely avoiding a future rewrite and changing company history.

By 1984, DBL is written in C, making Version 4 truly cross-platform. The initial version is released for MS-DOS and AT&T Unix, with other platforms such as SCO Xenix[2], VMS, and TSX-Plus following in 1985. V4 also brings support for multi-key ISAM, virtual memory, multi-dimensional arrays, and the ability to bind two or more programs together into one executable.

Putting the “You” in Unix and Beyond—Fast

To facilitate hungry Unix/Xenix users, the company starts the Passport to Unix program. “Bring your source code, and by the end of the week, we’ll have your applications running on Unix/Xenix,” promises the program. It’s delivered in week-long-plus sessions with Synergex providing the hardware and customers bringing their source code.

By the end of the 80s, the program will accelerate the broad availability of Unix to customers, and the Passport model will go on to expedite DBL’s migration to other operating systems and key technologies (including Windows and eventually the web). These early programs give rise to Synergex’s Technical Services team, which will later become today’s Professional Services organization, dedicated to helping customers leverage Synergex technologies and drive business success.

MS-DOS availability is particularly timely when Microsoft ships Windows 1.0 (1985). Sales guy Bill Mooney (future Synergex GM and CEO) inadvertently gets a demo from Bill Gates when the former visits the Microsoft hospitality suite at COMDEX 1983 hoping to score some free Heineken and shrimp.

In 1987, Synergex holds its first DBL Developer’s Conference. These become annual events, bringing customers together and showcasing new products and features—and become equally known for lively late-night conversations at the bar and memorable raft trips down the American River.

Setting the (ANSI) Standard

In the late 1980s, as DEC works to expand adoption of DIBOL, one challenge repeatedly surfaces: DIBOL is not an ANSI[3]-standard language. Large corporations and government agencies view that as a risk to its long-term viability. To address this, DEC initiates an ANSI standards committee, bringing together language vendors, major users, and industry representatives.

Synergex’s Ken Lidster is invited to participate and serves as vice chairman. After more than two years of collaboration, the committee establishes the first ANSI standard for DIBOL in 1992.

The work continues, as DEC and Synergex have independently extended the language. Over the following years, the committee reconciles these different implementations and defines a common set of standardized extensions.

The ANSI designation increases acceptance among enterprise and government organizations and is also a key advantage with international customers. When DEC later exits the market and Synergex becomes DIBOL’s primary steward, the standard helps reinforce customer confidence and supports the language’s long-term continuity.

Yes, We Do Windows—and Everything Else

In the early 90s, DBL Version 5 adds “low-level windows” routines for creating UI elements like menus, bordered displays, and pop-up messages. While demoing these to customers and prospects, DBL inventor/eternal tinkerer Ken Lidster serendipitously starts creating and sharing higher-level routines on the fly in response to customer questions. His effort eventually yields Developer’s Toolkit, a widely adopted product that helps customers create high-quality, consistent UIs across their applications.

The first incarnations of Repository and ReportWriter are released soon after, and Developer’s Toolkit expands and is renamed UI Toolkit.

DBL goes truly GUI in 1995 with the release of DBL 5.7.9 on Windows 95 and NT. Later it enables Java front ends to access Synergy applications with the release of Synergy 6.3 and ships the Workbench development environment and Linux support in Synergy 7.1.

As DBL evolves, Synergex steadily strengthens its position in the DIBOL market. It competes aggressively with other vendors, including Softbol, which responds with deep discounts that Synergex initially matches but can’t sustain. The landscape changes when ASA Tire acquires Softbol to protect its investment in the platform. ASA later moves to DBL and ultimately sells Softbol to Synergex. The acquisition brings several Softbol customers into the Synergex fold. By 1993, Synergex takes over DEC’s DIBOL market, making DBL the official language of the DIBOL community.

Remaining competitors in the DIBOL market fade away, with many customers (small to large) moving over to Synergex.

Thriving and Relevant at the Turn of the Century—And Beyond

Throughout the 1990s, Synergex continues to evolve its development tools to support growing customer needs. The introduction of high-performance file utilities (like isutl) improves data management and strengthens platform portability, particularly for Windows and Unix systems. Customers move from older, character-based applications to graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to capitalize on the rising dominance of Windows. Synergy applications can also now connect to external databases using SQL, bridging legacy systems with modern relational databases. In addition, Synergex introduces xfServer and xfServerPlus to support client server architectures through data and application server capabilities. And an ODBC product provides access to Synergy data files, enabling customers to use third-party reporting and analytic tools.  

Synergy remains highly portable throughout the decade, ensuring that DBL code can be compiled and run across diverse platforms including Microsoft Windows, OpenVMS, and various Unix systems.

Meanwhile, Synergex becomes increasingly known for enabling developers to preserve their investment in existing business logic while moving to modern systems. It incorporates new tools and technologies along the way.

Customers can confidently move forward with their DBL applications, preparing them for the Y2K run-up and for technologies coming their way in the new century. 

“In the Synergex world, new technologies aren’t displacement or replacement but additives,” recalls Bill Mooney. “C or C# or other languages, the web/web browsers, Azure front ends, and whatever is next.”

Business is booming, with new customers such as Computers Unlimited, ASA Tire, and IBCOS partnering with Synergex to help move their applications forward.

Enter another well-intentioned white knight: customer Terry Jones. He asks newly promoted general manager Bill Mooney, “What are you going to do about .NET?” 

Stay tuned for the final article in our three-part series to find out.

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[1] TSX is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system developed by S&H Computer Systems for PDP-11 computers. 

[2] Xenix is a proprietary version of the Unix operating system licensed by Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s and developed for microcomputers. It served as a portable, multi-user system, frequently used to bring Unix functionality to Intel-based personal computers and workstations during the 1980s.

[3] American National Standards Institute