VERBAL: Preliminary Application Programmers Guide

摘要

The document is meant as an introduction to VERBAL, and as an aid for programmers writing application programs that use the system. The system is designed to be a tool for interactive applications, and provide several important features: (1) An identification system which allows a user to use 'natural language' in the communication with the computer. This system also makes it possible to decide the data structure at the time of retrieval, making it possible to reduce the lead time in the design of integrated systems and reduces the problems of changes in specifications. (2) An efficient and easy checkpoint/restart facility, making it possible to use frequent checkpoints to keep loss of data at a minimum at an uncontrolled program termination, and provide a restart facility which does not require a rollback. (3) Variable length records. The records are matrices consisting of a variable number of lines, each of variable length. (4) The system may operate on a database distribute on computers in a network, even if these do not use the same representation of data. Any required conversion is done as part of the communication procedure. (Copyright (c) 1979 Sturla Sandlie.)