Progress
Programming
Handbook
More Complex Applications Supported
A 4GL supports complex applications by providing application-oriented language features. These are features that reflect the application problem rather than the capabilities of a particular machine.
For example, where an earlier generation language might allow you to see data only as a stream of bytes or characters, a 4GL presents data with equal ease as a byte stream or as related collections of objects in a database. Similarly, where a less powerful language provides only basic arithmetic and logical operations, a 4GL also provides application-oriented operations for record reading and writing, database navigation, searching, sorting, time and date conversion, and user interface management, to name just a few.
To support these more complex operations efficiently, reliably, and with a high degree of flexibility, a modern 4GL like Progress provides a run-time manager. This run-time manager maintains a consistent environment for developing and deploying applications, whether single platform or multi-platform, local or distributed.
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