osmigo@ut-emx.uucp (Ron Morgan) (06/03/91)
Some data processing departments (e.g., universities with massive databases) use a language called NATURAL, running on an IBM mainframe. It's supposed to be similar to COBOL (ugh). I cannot find out *anything* about this language. Can someone please email (or post) some information about NATURAL, such as its characteristics, difficulty of learning/writing/debugging, etc.? I would be most, most grateful. Ron Morgan osmigo@emx.utexas.edu
px@fct.unl.pt (Joaquim Baptista [pxQuim]) (06/03/91)
In article <49857@ut-emx.uucp> osmigo@ut-emx.uucp (Ron Morgan) writes:
Some data processing departments (e.g., universities with massive databases)
use a language called NATURAL, running on an IBM mainframe. It's supposed to
be similar to COBOL (ugh). I cannot find out *anything* about this language.
I had a look at it once. It was part of a (probably) public domain
database called ADABAS, written in COBOL.
The language itself was a VERY verbose query language, but I can't say
anything about its expressive power, although I wouldn't expect much
from it.
Disclaimer: take these opinions with a large grain of salt. You would
be surprised if I told you how long I looked to the language.
----
Joaquim Baptista, aka px@fct.unl.pt, px@unl.uucp
Snail: CRIA, UNINOVA, FCT/UNL, 2825 Mt Caparica, Portugal
So long, and thanks for all the fish.nmm@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) (06/04/91)
px@fct.unl.pt (Joaquim Baptista [pxQuim]) writes:
< I had a look at it once. It was part of a (probably) public domain
< database called ADABAS, written in COBOL.
There may have been more than one variant of ADABAS, but the one we had
was certainly not public domain.
Nick Maclaren
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
nmm@cl.cam.ac.ukfwb@pollux.tmc.edu (Fred Brehm) (06/04/91)
In article <49857@ut-emx.uucp> osmigo@ut-emx.uucp (Ron Morgan) writes: >Some data processing departments (e.g., universities with massive databases) >use a language called NATURAL, running on an IBM mainframe. It's supposed to >be similar to COBOL (ugh). I cannot find out *anything* about this language. In article <PX.91Jun3161211@zen.fct.unl.pt> px@fct.unl.pt (Joaquim Baptista [pxQuim]) writes: >I had a look at it once. It was part of a (probably) public domain >database called ADABAS, written in COBOL. Well, you're close. Natural is the 4GL for ADABAS, which is a very expensive DBMS for IBM mainframes and VMS VAXen (maybe others?). ADABAS is sold by Software AG whose main US office is in Reston, VA, at least it was two years ago. You should be able to find a phone number for them in any issue of Datamation or a similar trade rag. Their salescreatures will be willing to tell you about Natural if you act like a potential customer. Fred -- Frederic W. Brehm Siemens Corporate Research Princeton, NJ fwb@demon.siemens.com -or- ...!princeton!siemens!demon!fwb
jfr@locus.com (Jon Rosen) (06/05/91)
In article <PX.91Jun3161211@zen.fct.unl.pt> px@fct.unl.pt (Joaquim Baptista [pxQuim]) writes: >I had a look at it once. It was part of a (probably) public domain >database called ADABAS, written in COBOL. Ooops, this is certainly wrong... ADABAS is a quite commercial database management system from a German company called Software AG which has its US subsidiary headquarters in Virginia... It runs on MVS and maybe some other computers these days... It is NOT written in COBOL, but rather was completely written in IBM 370 Assembler (maybe partially written in C these days)... It is principally an inverted list data base system which has had a psuedo-relational wrapper grafted on to it to handle the marketing problem of not being truly relational. NATURAL is a 4GL which is used to write applications for ADABAS... Currently Software AG has a version of NATURAL which will access DB2 directly instead of ADABAS databases... Public Domain ? Naahhh... $250,000+? Yeahhh... :-) Jon Rosen
px@fct.unl.pt (Joaquim Baptista [pxQuim]) (06/05/91)
In article <1991Jun4.085246.25664@cl.cam.ac.uk> nmm@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) writes: I wrote: < I had a look at it once. It was part of a (probably) public domain < database called ADABAS, written in COBOL. There may have been more than one variant of ADABAS, but the one we had was certainly not public domain. Some public office related to environmental matters bought a mainframe, and got ADABAS for free. That's why I thought it probably was public domain software. ---- Joaquim Baptista, aka px@fct.unl.pt, px@unl.uucp Snail: CRIA, UNINOVA, FCT/UNL, 2825 Mt Caparica, Portugal So long, and thanks for all the fish.
billk@hawk.cs.ukans.edu (Bill Kinnersley) (06/06/91)
In article <25052@oolong.la.locus.com> jfr@locus.com (Jon Rosen) writes:
:
: NATURAL is a 4GL which is used to write applications for ADABAS...
:
I like the name of the menu-driven version of NATURAL..
They call it SUPER/NATURAL!
--
--Bill Kinnersley
billk@hawk.cs.ukans.edu
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