I feel the timeline is wrong re when dBase Inc took over. I remember working as a consultant on shipping new features for dBase back in 2000 or so.
I implemented reflection for the dBase language and was also part of trying to convert it to Visual C++ instead of using the Borland compiler. I was very green back then but it was interesting, my only time dealing with interpreters / compilers
We use BQ quite extensively there are a number of billing tuning options which are not that well documented.
1. for some it will make sense to move to pricing based on CPU time per query vs billing on scanned TB of data. This can be done through the commits in UI.
2. there is option to have storage billed on logical or physical bytes. If you have data with a lot of duplication (enums, customer ids etc) then physical billing can be a lot better option. Last I looked this was only available through CLI setting in dataset and you may need to ask Google to include you in their beta.
We lowered our billing with 30% for storage.
I try to keep an eye on GCP release notes to find things like the physical vs logical billing.
I implemented reflection for the dBase language and was also part of trying to convert it to Visual C++ instead of using the Borland compiler. I was very green back then but it was interesting, my only time dealing with interpreters / compilers