Helllo!

[JenBabe]

Hi everyone! I'm Jennifer and I'm new to progress databases. I will be coming here regularly since I'm now workinng with progress and I have a lot to learn.

One quick question, is there any way I could download the progress database like a personal edition to use at home? or probably a trial edition?

Another quick question is with respect to progress and sql. Now from what I've read thus far, progress's speciality is not sql92. How is that possible? isnt progress as a database is able to connect with a programming language? How then could the programming language retrieve informatioon without sql? I don't know if I'm misunderstanding but could someone clear it up for me please?

Thanks,
Jennifer

 

[KnutHandsome]

Hi Jennifer.

Welcome to the forum.

You are correct - most dbs are accessed via SQL, and you can do this with a Progress DB also, but the real power of Progress comes from using the 4GL, which is essentially an alternative "way in".

The 4GL (or ABL as it is known to trendy types) really belongs to the
more traditional 'imperative' family of programming languages which includes everything from Basic to C and more modern event/object oriented variants, as opposed to a 'set based' language like SQL.

Unlike most of those languages, it has some very powerful extensions which enable it to iterate through a data set very easily.

The equivalent in SQL would be to use an SQL extension like PL/SQL or T-SQL to load a cursor and iterate through that. Progress 4GL is kind of like a much more flexible PL/SQL, a sort of cross between VB6 and COBOL.

Microsoft's new LINQ technology uses some of the concepts developed by Progress to tightly bind its powerful .Net languages to the data they operate on.

Here's another post which explains some of the differences.

http://www.progresstalk.com/showpost.php?p=322026&postcount=2

You should be able to download the OpenEdge Test Drive (or whatever its called these days) from the Progress/PSDN site.

 

[software_mukesh]

hi jennifier i m totally agree with knuthandsome....well till now u would have got idea of progress...how powerful is progress

 

[JenBabe]

Ok I got your point. It's basically a record based language but also has the capabilities of supporting sql 92. That's great!

Another question just popped up in my mind. Could progress be a back-end DB to a front end application built in probably java, c#.net or even PHP? I guess it would involve a simply odbc connection like the other DBs out there.

Thanks for you replies. I appreciate it.

Jennifer

 

[joey.jeremiah]

Hi Jennifer,

Yes. Progress also has a SQL engine and ODBC/JDBC drivers, though, I think, it's mostly optimized for JDBC.

But a more common practice is that the backend and business logic is built in 4GL and one or some of the interfaces are built in .NET, Java or other.

Here's a video recording of a sample application that shows some of the integration options available in Progress -

http://www.psdn.com/library/entry.jspa?externalID=1697&categoryID=298

 

[Mehmet]

hello helloo