Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!DMasterson From: DMasterson@cup.portal.com Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: SQL = 4GL ??? Message-ID: <8439@cup.portal.com> Date: 25 Aug 88 06:42:49 GMT References: <24484@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <5172@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 17 XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.2888 I've read with the interest the definitions of 4GLs that I've seen so far, but none have quite hit the mark that I expected. This is not to say that I think I have a definitive definition of 4GL, just another one. ;-) 4GL - a language providing the features to allow a user to describe the information he desires and the form in which he desires to see it, but leaves the mechanism by which this information is gathered and presented to the system. I believe this is a flexible and complete definition that doesn't limit the implementation of a 4GL to just a conglomeration of previously specified tools. However, this begs the question -- what's a 5GL?? :-)) David Masterson DMasterson@cup.portal.com