[1] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

fourth generation language
     
         4gl an "application specific" language, one with
        built-in knowledge of an application domain, in the way that
        sql has built-in knowledge of the database domain.  pure
        4gls do not contain conditionals if-then-else and loops
        for, while, do, though some languages are combinations of
        third generation languages and 4gls.
     
        the term was invented by jim martin to refer to
        non-procedural high level languages built around
        database systems.  the first three generations were
        developed fairly quickly, but it was still frustrating, slow,
        and error prone to program computers, leading to the first
        "programming crisis", in which the amount of work that might
        be assigned to programmers greatly exceeded the amount of
        programmer time available to do it.  meanwhile, a lot of
        experience was gathered in certain areas, and it became clear
        that certain applications could be generalised by adding
        limited programming languages to them.  thus were born report
        generator languages, which were fed a description of the data
        format and the report to generate and turned that into a
        cobol or other language program which actually contained
        the commands to read and process the data and place the
        results on the page.
     
        some other successful 4th-generation languages are: database
        query languages, e.g. sql; focus, metafont,
        postscript, rpg-ii, s, idl-pv/wave, gauss,
        mathematica; and data-stream languages such as avs,
        ape, iris explorer.
     
        2003-07-29
     
     
see also:
sql third generation languages non-procedural high level languages database report generator 
cobol database query languages focus metafont postscript 
rpg-ii s idl-pv/wave gauss mathematica 
data-stream languages avs ape iris explorer 

Language >> L Words
Language, definition of term: Language
language_pag1.html

Fourth >> F Words
Fourth, definition of term: Fourth
fourth_pag1.html

Generation >> G Words
Generation, definition of term: Generation
generation_pag1.html

Fourth Power >> F Words
Fourth Power, definition of term: Fourth Power
fourth+power_pag1.html

Fourth Estate >> F Words
Fourth Estate, definition of term: Fourth Estate
fourth+estate_pag1.html

Fourth Generati >> F Words
Fourth Generati, definition of term: Fourth Generati
fourth+generati_pag1.html

Markup Language >> M Words
Markup Language, definition of term: Markup Language
markup+language_pag1.html

Sign Language >> S Words
Sign Language, definition of term: Sign Language
sign+language_pag1.html

Siouan Language >> S Words
Siouan Language, definition of term: Siouan Language
siouan+language_pag1.html

Target Language >> T Words
Target Language, definition of term: Target Language
target+language_pag1.html

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