Databases under UNIX-386

Bruce A. McIntyre bruce at mdi386.UUCP
Sun Sep 17 01:00:21 AEST 1989


In article <4525 at ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>, dyer at spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) writes:
> Progress is rather nice in some ways, but the fact that it's a procedural
> language without subroutines was ultimately VERY frustrating.  You could
> construct macro-substitution templates which expand in-line into code,
> which gives you a subroutinish feel, but all the versions of the language
> I used (up to and including 4.0--I don't know what's current now) had a
> strict 64K limit on compiled-byte-code size, which liberal use of macro
> expansions would break.  Also, the lack of local variables was another pain.
> -- 
> Steve Dyer
> dyer at ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
> dyer at arktouros.mit.edu, dyer at hstbme.mit.edu

There are some real mis-communications and conceptions here..

First of all, the include file macros can be passed positional parameters
or named parameters, and are a very fast way to work.  If you must use
subroutines, then you can run lots of small .p procedures to do what you
want and configure the memory buffers to handle them well.  This is true
for both Version 3.x and 4.x, and we now use Version 5.x.

As for 64K size limit, that is true, but for someone who wants to write with
sub-routines, you can call any number of sub-procedures, each one of which
can be up to 64K compiled size.  Remember that is the compiled size, as
the source can be larger, especially when using the include files.  All
variables can be defined as Global, Shared, or Private... in fact the default
is private local.  I think perhaps Steve gave up a little too soon.  If
there is anything that is idio-syncratic about Progress, it is the use of
Scoping and Frames... But you learn to love it.

Also with version 5.x, you can mix both Progress 4GL code and SQL statements
in the same code, even use Progress Verb modifiers to SQL statements.  It
supports standard Ansi SQL.  This is native mode, not just an interface.

There is a Progress users BBS available at 215,446,4035 that is NOT run
by Progress, but by Progress users.  Give it a call if you have such
questions..

bruce
-- 
=========================================================================
	Bruce A. McIntyre, McIntyre Designs, Inc. VOICE(215)322-1895
	143 Bridgetown Pike, Langhorne, Pa. 19047 DATA (215)357-2915
	{wells|lgnp1}!mdi386!bruce		bruce at mdi386 tbit+



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