Kbase 8548: General overview of V6 products 4GL QUERY RUNTIME RESULTS FT
| Autor |
Progress Software Corporation - Progress |
| Acesso |
Público |
| Publicação |
5/10/1998 |
|
General overview of V6 products 4GL QUERY RUNTIME RESULTS FT
910624-pjh02
INTRODUCTION:
=============
This Product Service Technical Support Knowledgebase entry provides
an overview of the different products that Progress offers:
PROGRESS Application Development System (PADS)
The PROGRESS Application Development System is Progress Software
Corporation's high-end product -- the ultimate high-productivity
application development environment. This premier product com-
bines all the power and flexibility of the PROGRESS fourth-gener-
ation language and relational database management system with the
productivity advantages gained from PROGRESS FAST TRACK application
builder, so that prototyping can proceed much faster.
PROGRESS 4GL & RDBMS
The PROGRESS 4GL & RDBMS provides everything needed to build
and run complete, sophisticated single- and multi-user applica-
tions across a wide range of hardware platforms.
The PROGRESS 4GL & RDBMS is made up of a fourth-generation
language coupled with a relational database management system to
form a high-productivity application development environment.
The English-like statements and syntax of the PROGRESS fourth-
generation language enables an experienced developer to create
applications in as little as one-tenth the time required when using
a 3GL such as COBOL. The highly automated relational database
management system is tightly coupled with the 4GL and automatically
handles many functions that must be programmed into an application
when developing with a 3GL.
Three other components are seamlessly integrated with the 4GL &
RDBMS. A data dictionary centralizes data descriptions to define
structures and simplifies maintenance; an editor checks syntax as
instructions are written and points out errors; and an automatic
formatter generates screens and reports, so that the results are
visible immediately.
With PROGRESS, a developer can build complex transaction-based
applications that allow scores of users to simultaneously view
and update the many records in a database. The system handles
contention either by locking records automatically, or as specified
by the developer in the application.
The RDBMS also automatically takes care of recovery in case of
most system failures, as in the case of a power loss. PROGRESS
automatically backs out any incomplete transactions when the
system comes back up. Where system failure results in the loss
of information on a disk, as in a head crash, the user can restore
the database using roll-forward recovery feature. This feature
reloads data from the last backup tape and applies a copy of the
after-image of the intervening transactions; the system then
processes those transactions, restoring the database to its state
at the time of the crash.
The PROGRESS 4GL also lets developers embed SQL statemetns within
their PROGRESS-built applications. This enables applications to
combine the power and virtues of each. Thus developers can use
the procedural language of PROGRESS to combine "if, then, else"
logic as well as PROGRESS screen control capabilities with ANSI-
standard SQL processing.
Beacause most applications can be developed entirely in the PROGRESS
4GL, the developer won't need to drop down to C, the host language in
which PROGRESS is written. However, developers can use the CALL
verb from within a PROGRESS application to bring in C subroutines
in order to interface with specialized hardware, enabling the
program to activate cash-drawers, display video disk images, or
control pipeline valves.
In summary, applications written in PROGRESS provide great flexi-
bility, high performance, automatic and comprehensive recovery
from system failure, an easy to master user interface -- and they
can be developed in a fraction of the time needed with third-
generation programming languages such as C or COBOL.
PROGRESS FAST TRACK
PROGRESS FAST TRACK is a menu-driven application builder that
speeds prototyping and makes PROGRESS easier to use. It provides
a what-you-see is what-you-get (WYSIWYG) style screen painter,
a tool to build and link menus, a flexible report writer, and a
facility for making query-by-form searches of the database. Users
of applications written in PROGRESS find FAST TRACK helpful because
it permits them to make QBF database searches and allows them to
develop their own sophisticated reports.
Experienced PROGRESS developers find FAST TRACK speeds up proto-
typing large portions of an application, such as designing the
screens and reports and creating and linking the menus. FAST
TRACK also makes it easier to add new functions to existing
PROGRESS applications.
Because of its WYSIWYG design, users with minimal PROGRESS
experience can use FAST TRACK with the 4GL to build complete
database applications.
PROGRESS QUERY/REPORT
PROGRESS QUERY/REPORT enables customers to run applications
within a very flexible environment, yet provides safeguards to
prevent inadvertent destruction of data.
Simular to the PROGRESS 4GL & RDBMS, users have the PROGRESS
language, the RDBMS, the procedure editor, the screen and
report formatter. However they have a limited version of the
dictionary that does not allow changes to the data definitions.
In addition, QUERY/REPORT provides the sophisticated report-
writer features of PROGRES FAST TRACK in combination with the
query capabilities of PROGRESS and SQL.
Having all these tools means that QUERY/REPORT users can
run PROGRESS applications and they can write application
procedures of their own and do SQL searches as long as those
procedures do not modify the database schema.
PROGRESS RUN-TIME
PROGRESS RUN-TIME enables the application developer to deliver
applications to end users without delivering the source code.
That is, it provides the environment needed to run PROGRESS-based
turnkey applications. Because PROGRESS RUN-TIME does not include
any of the tools used to write an application (data dictionary,
PROGRESS language, procedure editor, and screen and report for-
matter), RUN-TIME users can use an application but cannot write
any of their own procedures.
PROGRESS Developer's Toolkit
The Developer's Toolkit provides the means to move complete
applications to a new machine environment, or to upgrade, fix or
modify an application on-site.
Limited compiler capabilities reside in the run-time software,
so it can recompile encrypted source code. Therefore, a single
Toolkit can be used to encrypt an application's source code and
move it to a number of different machine environments. This
brings great economies to the process of porting to new systems.
All that is required is the purchase of a PROGRESS RUN-TIME or
QUERY/REPORT for each new environment.
The tools include:
- An unfrozen, empty database so the PROGRESS metaschema can be
modified.
- Utilities to freeze the database definitions and to restrict
access to those definitions.
- A PROGRESS 4GL compiler, so that applications can be moved to
a different type of machine, or for custom work on site.
- Templates of the scripts, batch files, and command procedures
that users need to start the application or dump and reload the
database.
Among the tools are a facility to dump and reload the database
(if the end-user site does not have the full PROGRESS 4GL &
RDBMS) batch files or scripts to start PROGRESS and access
applications, and aids to tailor screens and modify security
according to the customer's desires. The Toolkit eliminates the
need to purchase a 4GL & RDBMS for each new machine environment
an application is ported to.
PROGRESS TEST DRIVE
The PROGRESS TEST DRIVE is a fully functional version of PROGRESS,
packaged with a working PROGRESS application. It includes all of
the PROGRESS capabilities and most of the documentation. The one
constraint is that the user can only use a given database a
limited number of times. However, the user can continue testing
the product by dumping the data, creating a new database, and then
reloading the data.
Because each TEST DRIVE is tailored for a specific machine operat-
ing environment, the TEST DRIVE is an inexpensive way for a PROGRESS
user to try an existing application on a new machine or under a
different operating system.
In addition to using the TEST DRIVE for development, resellers can
also use it as a valuable marketing tool just as Progress Software
Corporation does. Prospects can see and enjoy the benefits of an
application in a realistic setting.
The prospect can do a self-sell and become a customer with no risk
and minimal investment on the part of the developer.
The prospect gains the confidence that comes only with hands-on
knowledge of the application while the developer maintains control
over the source code.
Progress Software Technical Support Note # 8548