Re: WWW and Oracle

In article <30B9E0E1.5301_at_gserver.grads.vt.edu> Thomas Dunbar <tdunbar_at_gserver.grads.vt.edu> writes:
>Magnus Lonnroth wrote:
>> argue about it. Anyway, PL/SQL is not a 4GL.
>
>glad to hear someone say that. not that i've ever been sure what a 4GL
>really was (other than a jumble of function calls, etc). at any rate,
>pl/sql looks more like a real language to me than the things i see
>called 4GLs.
>
>What is a 4GL anyway?
>

A language designed to work with groups of records rather than one record at a time.

1GL - language directly follows machine code.

2GL - language allows mnemonics for groupings of machine code.

3GL - language allows statements that explode into groups of machine code.

4GL - language allows dealing with more abstract constructs such as

      relations, more insulated from machine code.

Note that the abstraction provided by a 4GL allows a more direct translation from a theoretical design construct for a database. I would guess this change from being directly in control of what the computer is doing to letting an engine be in control is what causes you to feel like a 3GL is more of a language than a 4GL. Since all vendors have to add extensions to SQL to account for inconsistencies with and deficiencies of relational theory (and you have to figure out puzzles to do ordinary things in straight SQL sometimes), this is a perfectly reasonable way to feel. The (obvious) answer is to use tools that get what you want done, and don't worry about things like "what is a 4GL?" SQL is, and PL/SQL is an extension to make it not.

(Superflous note: I worked for a while (not too long ago!) in a language called IRL, proprietary for a barcode reader. I considered it a 2.5GL, because it was an assembler that had one-character commands, but also had some constructs beyond macros that had some 3GL characteristics. Since I was loading it from Oracle, and had a 3GL intermediate processing system, the whole thing went 2GL <-> 3GL <-> 4GL. What a pain.)

-- 
Joel Garry               joelga_at_rossinc.com               Compuserve 70661,1534
These are my opinions, not necessarily those of Ross Systems, Inc.   <> <>
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