FOCUS is a fourth-generation programming language (4GL) computer programming language and development environment that is used to build database queries. Produced by Information Builders Inc., it was originally developed for data handling and analysis on the IBM mainframe. Subsequently versions for minicomputers and such as the VAX and other platforms were implemented. FOCUS was later extended to personal computers and (in 1997) to the World Wide Web: the WebFOCUS product. History Information Builders's FOCUS product began as an alternate product to Mathematica's RAMIS, the first Fourth-generation programming language (4GL). National CSS (NCSS), a Time-sharing vendor, licensed rights to make RAMIS available on its VP/CSS system. At some point Mathematica changed its licensing price. The interested parties were: NCSS, which was marketing RAMIS (and other products) for use on their time-sharing system Mathematica, owner of RAMIS Key developers/programmers of RAMIS some stayed with Mathematica others left to form the company that became Information Builders, known for its FOCUS product Relation to other 4GLs RAMIS was the direct ancestor of FOCUS. Gerald D. Cohen and Peter Mittelman were the principal developers of RAMIS while working at Mathematica Products Group in 1970. RAMIS was licensed by Mathematica to a number of in-house clients (including Nabisco and AT&T Corporation), and was also offered by the National CSS timesharing company. In October 1975 Cohen left Mathematica and formed Information Builders, after which he recreated the product he had built at Mathematica in the form of FOCUS, which was very similar to RAMIS: "the same bugs and the same misspelled error messages." The syntax of FOCUS in its simplest elements is almost a direct clone of the syntax of RAMIS bearing a resemblance similar to the differences between various early dialects of SQL. At the same time, NCSS decided to work on its own product, later called NOMAD. All three products flourished during the 1970s and early 1980s, with FOCUS also being offered on a time-sharing basis via Tymeshare. Mathematica's time ran out in the mid-80s, and NCSS also failed, a victim of the personal computing revolution which obviated commercial timesharing. RAMIS was sold to a series of companies, ultimately landing with Computer Associates. NOMAD suffered a similar fate. FOCUS, under Cohen's direction, continued to flourish by expanding their product line. Loosely competitive with SAS, FOCUS never quite reached the same degree of mainstream adoption, perhaps because it had only basic analytical and statistical functions and