This document covers the following topics:
A path to a valid license key file is required during the installation of Natural. The license key file is an XML file which is delivered by e-mail.
Separate license key files are required for Natural Security and Natural Development Server.
For further information, see the Installation documentation.
Applications that were created with Natural for OpenVMS Version 3.1 and above can be executed with Version 6.3 with the following restrictions:
Natural for OpenVMS Version 6.3 supports Unicode. For this reason, Natural has internally been Unicode-enabled which means that many structures containing strings have Unicode format now. Therefore, existing data which is available in code page format will be converted internally to Unicode format in several situations. This is especially necessary when loading a Natural source into the source area and when displaying alphanumeric strings at runtime. However, a conversion from code page to Unicode and vice versa can only be performed successfully if the correct code page is used for conversion. If all objects and other alphanumeric data are coded in the system code page, no changes are necessary. For more information, see Migrating Existing Applications in the Unicode and Code Page Support documentation.
The internal Unicode structure will most probably need more memory. If
you have defined a low value for the profile parameter
USIZE, it may be necessary to
increase this value.
The CP parameter, which was used with Natural
RPC, has been renamed to CPRPC. A new
CP parameter is now available
which defines the default code page for Natural data. When you are working with
Natural RPC and have previously used the CP parameter
dynamically, you have to change this parameter to
CPRPC. When you use parameter files from a previous
version, you need not change anything; the Configuration Utility automatically
migrates CP to CPRPC. See also
Natural Remote Procedure Call
(RPC).
The structure of the Natural library directory file
FILEDIR.SAG has changed. The old format can still be read
by Natural Version 6.3. However, it is automatically converted into the new
format whenever a modify access is made. Older versions of Natural cannot read
the new FILEDIR.SAG format. Therefore, it is no longer
recommended to share the system file FUSER with previous Natural
versions. When you have two installations of Natural (for example, version
5.1.1 (or below) and version 6.3), you have to use two different
version-specific FUSER system files. This is because the format of
the Natural library directory file FILEDIR.SAG has
changed. FILEDIR.SAG is automatically converted into the
new format the first time you modify an object in the FUSER. After
FILEDIR.SAG has been changed to the new format, Natural
Version 5.1.1, which is mentioned in the above example, is not longer able to
process the FUSER. For detailed information, see
Portable Natural System Files and
its subsection
Migrating an Old FILEDIR.SAG File
in the Operations documentation.
Natural Single Point of Development (SPoD) connects Natural for OpenVMS Version 6.3 to
a Natural for Windows Version 6.3 client (Natural Studio) via the Natural Development Server (NDV) Version 2.2.
This infrastructure enables the developer to create and maintain Natural applications using the Natural Development Server for OpenVMS to connect to Natural Studio under Windows.
For further information (including any limitations that may apply for your installation), see the separate Natural Single Point of Development documentation and the Natural Development Server documentation.
A revised and updated documentation set is available with this Natural version.
For consistency reasons, the documentation now distinguishes between
"user exits" and "application programming
interfaces". Application programming interfaces is a term used to
describe SYSEXT and the USR programs. For the
definitions of these terms, refer to the
Glossary.
"Real batch mode" has been renamed to "batch mode".
In some places, the documentation set for Natural for OpenVMS mentions features which are (currently) not supported with Natural for OpenVMS. Such features are:
Natural for Ajax and the object type "adapter".
Entire Access (connecting to an SQL database is thus not possible).
Natural for Tamino.
The example library
SYSEXV provides examples of the new
features of Natural since version 5.1.
Information on last-minute changes made just before the product release can be found in the file READ_ME_FIRST.TXT that is provided on the Natural installation medium.
