MULTIVALUE / A SHORT HISTORY
MultiValue is a database model, a programming tradition and an application environment with roots reaching back to 1965. Its history is not a single product line: it is a branching family held together by accounts, files, items, dynamic arrays, dictionary-driven queries and BASIC.
THE IDEA
A customer may have several addresses. An order may have many lines. A product may carry several tags. MultiValue records can represent those repetitions as values and subvalues inside an attribute, without requiring the application to scatter every repeated fact into a separate table.
The surrounding platform gives those records names and context:
System → Accounts → Files → Items → Attributes → Values → Subvalues → Characters
THE FIRST SPECIFICATION
At TRW, Don Nelson and Richard Pick worked on an information system associated with the U.S. Army's Cheyenne helicopter programme. The Generalized Information Retrieval Language and System - GIRLS - described an English-like way to retrieve structured information across remote terminals. This work became the starting point of the Pick lineage.
FROM PROJECT TO PRODUCT
The early system was delivered for government use and then moved into commercial computing. Microdata released Reality in the early 1970s, joining database storage, retrieval, terminal sessions and application development in one compact environment. Variable-length records and repeating values suited practical business data on constrained machines.
AN APPLICATION LANGUAGE
A BASIC dialect gained direct database operations, dynamic arrays and terminal features. Known as Data/BASIC and later through names such as Pick/BASIC and MV BASIC, it let developers build complete business systems close to their data. Accounts, files, dictionaries, query language and programs shared the same vocabulary.
A FAMILY OF SYSTEMS
The model appeared across minicomputers and business systems under many product names. Reality, Ultimate, Prime INFORMATION, ADDS Mentor and Pick Systems products developed distinct capabilities while retaining a recognisable account, file, dictionary, query and BASIC model. 'Pick' increasingly described both a product lineage and a style of application platform.
OPEN OPERATING SYSTEMS
New implementations brought the model to Unix and later Windows. UniVerse and UniData developed substantial application ecosystems; jBASE compiled its BASIC dialect to native code and integrated closely with the host operating system. OpenQM began in 1993 as an embedded database and grew into another compatible MultiValue environment.
CONSOLIDATION AND CONTINUITY
Vendor combinations and acquisitions brought major branches together while long-lived applications continued to evolve. D3 carried the Pick Systems line forward. UniVerse and UniData became known together as U2. Zumasys acquired jBASE in 2015 and OpenQM in 2019; Rocket Software acquired those database and tools products in 2021, adding them to a MultiValue portfolio that already included D3, UniVerse and UniData.
RIGHTMV / TODAY
RightMV carries the recognisable MultiValue application model into a modern database, runtime and browser-based development environment. Existing MV BASIC, accounts, files, dictionaries and terminal workflows remain meaningful, while interchangeable storage and execution engines, REST integration, indexing, portable backups and contemporary tooling extend the platform.
It is a new implementation in an old and still-practical tradition: preserve the applications, make the system observable, and give the next generation room to build.
See how RightMV works today →SOURCES / FURTHER READING