21 Jun
2006
21 Jun
'06
9:31 p.m.
Jay West wrote:
Chuck wrote...
Yes, Janus was like this as well (and SQL follows the same sort
of approach although with a more stilted grammar and salted with
more punctuation). I recall typing queries that ran the full
width of the paper on a DECwriter -- only to discover that I
had transposed two characters somewhere in the middle! :-/
> Back in the 60's and 70's there was a
brief interest in "natural"
> programming languages that used English as a basis. The goal was to
> provide something that would be easy for an "average" person to use.
Well, it wasn't a programming language, but it was a command prompt data
retrieval database language. Pick (aka Reality, Sequel, Zebra,
Revelation, Mentor, Ultimate, Prime Information yada yada yada....) did.
For example, at the command prompt, the following are valid commands and
yield just what you'd think.
LIST CUSTOMER-INVOICES WITH ORDER.AMOUNT > "50.00"
SELECT CUSTOMERS WITH ZIP = "63102" AND WITH AR.BALANCE # "0.00"
LIST CUSTOMERS NAME ADDRESS CONTACT
And of course you could store those commands in a file and even use
in-line prompting for variables, so it was kind of a programming
language too.