Short answers, pulled from the story.
RagTime is a frame-oriented business publishing program that combines word processing, spreadsheets, image processing, charts, drawings, and slide presentations in a single compound document. It is used to create forms, reports, documentation, and desktop publishing materials, with typical users including business clients, educational institutions, architects, and private individuals.
RagTime was first released in 1986 for the Macintosh, under the original working title MacFrame. Development began in 1985, and the program was renamed before publication, taking its name from the then-available software package Lotus Jazz.
RagTime's price of $395 in 1990 was too high for the North American market. The North American sales office closed in 1991, shortly after Claris Corporation released ClarisWorks, which duplicated much of RagTime's functionality at a lower cost.
RagTime filed for bankruptcy in July 2007 following shareholder disagreements and a significant decline in sales after the launch of RagTime 6.0. The rights to the software were taken over by a newly established company, RagTime.de Development GmbH, which continues to develop and sell the product today.
RagTime Solo was a free version for personal use, available until mid-2006 and distributed in some markets as RagTime Privat. It matched the commercial edition except for the absence of spelling and syllabification dictionaries, and its license prohibited commercial use. RagTime discontinued Solo on the 5th of July 2006, citing widespread misinterpretation and deliberate violation of the license conditions.
RagTime versions 1 through 3 were developed in Pascal. Starting with version 4, released in 1996, development moved entirely to C++. Users can extend and automate RagTime via AppleScript on macOS or via an OLE/COM API under Windows.