OpenEdge Advanced Business Language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:14, 8 April 2024

Revision as of 14:44, 20 April 2024

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==History==

The original Progress 4GL was designed (in 1981) as an architecture independent language and integrated database system that could be used by non-experts to develop business applications by people who were not computer scientists but were knowledgeable in their business ___domain. At thethat time, business applications were often written in COBOL (for machines like corporate IBM mainframes) and sometimes in C (for departmental minicomputers running the UNIX operating system). When the IBM PC became popular, it developed a need for business software that could be used on those and other inexpensive computers. The Progress system was created to be used on both IBM PC machines running DOS and on a variety of computers that could run UNIX and [[minicomputer]] operating systems such as [[OpenVMS]].

==Syntax and semantics==

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Progress ABL is a strongly typed, late-bound, [[English-like programming language]]. Although initially designed as a procedural language, starting with version 10.1 it was enhanced with [[Object-oriented programming|object-oriented]] grammar elements, which can be mixed with the original procedural style. A block of code may have a transaction scoped to it, in which case database changes will be committed when it completes. An error raised within such a block will undo these changes. These defaults may be overridden by the programmer.

Simple programs run without a Graphical User Interface, but there is syntax to create one programmatically;, or programmers can use the provided tools to build one.

==Examples==