topic Re: abap in Application Development and Automation Discussions

abap

Former Member — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:37:33 GMT

q) 3rd generation language is english level language.abap/4 (fouth gen. language).what is mean by fourth generation language?plzz tell

Re: abap

Former Member — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:40:02 GMT

Hi,

Please refer to the link below :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-generation_programming_language

Thanks,

Sriram Ponna.

P.S. Srinath, if you are satisfied with replies, please close the thread. You have 254 posts in that 249 are not closed.

Edited by: Sriram Ponna on Feb 12, 2008 8:10 PM

Re: abap

Former Member — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:08:34 GMT

A fourth-generation programming language (1970s-1990) (abbreviated 4GL) is a programming language or programming environment designed with a specific purpose in mind, such as the development of commercial business software. In the evolution of computing, the 4GL followed the 3GL in an upward trend toward higher abstraction and statement power. The 4GL was followed by efforts to define and use a 5GL.

The natural-language, block-structured mode of the third-generation programming languages improved the process of software development. However, 3GL development methods can be slow and error-prone. It became clear that some applications could be developed more rapidly by adding a higher-level programming language and methodology which would generate the equivalent of very complicated 3GL instructions with fewer errors. In some senses, software engineering arose to handle 3GL development. 4GL and 5GL projects are more oriented toward problem solving and systems engineering.

All 4GLs are designed to reduce programming effort, the time it takes to develop software, and the cost of software development. They are not always successful in this task, sometimes resulting in inelegant and unmaintainable code. However, given the right problem, the use of an appropriate 4GL can be spectacularly successful as was seen with MARK-IV and MAPPER (see History Section, Santa Fe real-time tracking of their freight cars - the productivity gains were estimated to be 8 times over COBOL). The usability improvements obtained by some 4GLs (and their environment) allowed better exploration for heuristic solutions than did the 3GL.

A quantitative definition of 4GL has been set by Capers Jones, as part of his work on function point analysis. Jones defines the various generations of programming languages in terms of developer productivity, measured in function points per staff-month. A 4GL is defined as a language that supports 12 - 20 FP/SM. This correlates with about 16 - 27 lines of code per function point implemented in a 4GL.

Fourth-generation languages have often been compared to domain-specific programming languages (DSLs). Some researchers state that 4GLs are a sub-set of DSLs. [1] Given the persistence of assembly language even now in advanced development environments (MS Studio), one expects that a system ought to be a mixture of all the generations, with only very limited use of the first

Re: abap

Former Member — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:37:37 GMT

hi please go through the below given material,

In 1969, a product called RAMIS from a group of people at Mathematica Products Group in Princeton, New Jersey was among the first of the languages dubbed a 4th Generation Language, or 4GL. It was available commercially, exclusively, on the time-sharing service provided by National CSS, Inc. of Stamford, CT, on a version of IBM's CP-67/CMS known as VP/CSS. The authors included Dick Cobb and Gerry Cohen, with help from some NCSS folks, including Harold Feinlieb and Nick Rawlings. It had its own database structure, which was essentially a single path hierarchy, a powerful REVISE command for importing data, and a powerful reporting verb PRINT.

One could say PRINT ACROSS MONTH SUM SALES BY DIVISION and receive a report that would have taken many hundreds of lines of Cobol to produce. The product grew in capability and in revenue, both to NCSS and to Mathematica, who enjoyed increasing royalty payments from the sizable customer base.

In 1973, NCSS decided to fund the development of an alternative product, which in October of 1975 was released under the name NOMAD. That same month, Gerry Cohen left Mathematica and released a product called FOCUS, which he made available on Tymshare Inc's competing time-sharing system, with the promise to RAMIS users that their applications could run un-modified, and at a significant discount over NCSS' charges for RAMIS applications.

NOMAD from NCSS, later D&B Computing Services, became quite successful under the VP/CSS operating system, generating some $100M per year by the mid '80's. As NOMAD2, it became available under IBM's VM in '83 and MVS in '84. When the NOMAD software business was sold to Thomson, CSF in 1987, the customer base included over 800 of the Fortune 5000. In addition to providing its own relational database, NOMAD by '84 had interfaces to IBM's SQL/DS and DB2, as well as VSAM and IMS, and Teradata's database computer. Software sales approached $30M annually. The importance of the 4GL language replaced the importance of its native database.

FOCUS from Information Builders, Inc (IBI), did even better, with revenue approaching a reported $150M per year. RAMIS moved among several owners, ending at Computer Associates in 1990, and has had little limelight since. NOMAD's owners, Thomson, continue to market the language from Aonix, Inc. While the three continue to deliver 10-to-1 coding improvements over the 3GL alternatives of Fortran, Cobol, or PL/1, the movements to object orientation and outsourcing have stagnated acceptance.

The owners of the three now count on maintenance and support revenues to remain profitable. Few new sales are made, as prospects look to People-Soft, SAP, Oracle, and others, to provide the turn-key solutions to their data warehousing and reporting requirements

Reward points if usefull,

Thanks & regards,

A.kalyan.

Re: abap

Former Member — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:40:37 GMT

Actually there are 4 levels of programming languages till today they are)

1)Machine level Language

2) Assembled language

3) High level Language

4) Business Level language (ABAP/4)

Hope u got it.