User:Sabinass01/Natural (Programming language)

History
The first versions of the first variant for mainframes were developed from 1975 by Peter Pagé with the assistance of Margit Neumann. From the beginning, Natural also enabled an interactive mode of operation on mainframes, which was initially only rarely possible there. It was originally developed for mainframe computers (Operating Systems: MVS, VSE and BS2000). Later on it was ported to VMS, OS2, Unix and Windows. The Natural development environment has also been integrated into Eclipse IDE (NaturalONE).

Databank Connection
In Natural, many data storage systems can be accessed both with proprietary access commands, some of which are highly efficient, and via standard SQL. These are mostly database management systems (DBMS). The accesses take place thereby over native (i.e. specific) drivers.

Natural supports the following Data management systems:

§  Adabas

§  VSAM

§  Db2

§  Oracle

§  Microsoft SQL Server

On z/OS Natural is runnable in any TP monitor environment (E.g.: CICS, Com-plete, IMS TM), a distinguishing feature that makes it easy to use and offers flexibility to the user, as applications written in Natural can be ported to a wide range of operating platforms without any change being required.

Programming language NPL
The NPL programming language is part of the comprehensive interactive software development environment Natural. NPL offered the first programming language for the creation of commercial application systems, for which the term 4th generation was created. The essential feature of 4th generation languages is the level of abstraction in which the problem is formulated. If higher programming languages of the 3. generation still require the programming of procedural technical single steps, in languages of the 4. generation the requirement is formulated rather problem near and brought by the system in arbitrary environments under use of the technical possibilities to the execution. Other features are: integrated user interface design, list generation, database access.

NPL code is very readable. Small application systems can be realized very quickly. However, very large application systems consisting of tens of thousands of program modules with millions of lines of code have been and are being successfully developed with NPL. Natural applications, especially in conjunction with Adabas, are known to be extremely performant.

Example: * Hello World in Natural WRITE 'Hello World!' END

* A simple Databank Request DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1   PERSONAL VIEW OF EMPLOYEES 2  NAME 2  CITY END-DEFINE ; FIND     ALL RECORDS IN FILE PERSONAL WITH   NAME = 'SCHMIDT' ; DISPLAY NAME CITY ; END-FIND ; END

Translation and Runtime
NPL source code is traditionally compiled into Natural intermediate code, which is then interpreted by the Natural runtime environment. This approach is similar to that of the Java Virtual Machine. However, many installations use the Optimizing Compiler, which for the most part generates machine instructions directly instead of intermediate code. This can significantly increase the efficiency of NPL programs.


 * Jochen Stein: A Natural Tutorial; 2009.
 * Natural for Mainframes – Programming Guide; 2009.
 * Jochen Stein: A Natural Tutorial; 2009.
 * Natural for Mainframes – Programming Guide; 2009.
 * Jochen Stein: A Natural Tutorial; 2009.
 * Natural for Mainframes – Programming Guide; 2009.