Version 6.3.12 for OpenVMS
 —  Release Notes for Natural Version 6.3 for OpenVMS  —

New Features

This document covers the following topics:


Installation

When installing Natural and Natural Security, you can now choose ApplinX as an additional package to be installed. You choose this package if you plan to use ApplinX and a browser instead of a standard VT terminal emulation. Starting with this version of Natural, the Entire Screen Builder package is no longer used for ApplinX.

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Unicode Support in Natural

Unicode is now supported. The new format U has been introduced and there are new/changed statements, parameters, system variables, etc. For details, see the Unicode and Code Page Support documentation. See also the example library SYSEXV which provides examples of the new Unicode features in this Natural version.

The new Natural Web I/O Interface is provided. In a remote development environment, it is used to display output which contains Unicode characters. When used in a production environment, the new Natural Web I/O Interface is required for Unicode programs. In the /appserver directory of the product CD, there are implementations for both Java EE-based and .NET servers. See Natural Web I/O Interface for further information.

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Adabas 6 (Open Systems) and Adabas 8 (Mainframe) Support

With Natural Version 6.3.4, a new database driver ADA2 is delivered that supports features introduced with Adabas 6 (Open Systems) and Adabas 8 (mainframe). This includes support of Adabas large objects fields, Adabas LA fields and extended Adabas buffer lengths. See also Adabas Database Management Interfaces ADA and ADA2 in the Programming Guide.

By default, the "old" database driver ADA is used. This ensures that your Natural applications run as usual; there is no difference to previous Natural versions. Only when you define the database type ADA2 in the Configuration Utility, the new database driver will be used.

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Object Types

Function

With this version of Natural, the object type "function" is introduced. See User-Defined Functions in the Programming Guide for further details.

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Resources

As of this version, Natural supports non-Natural files (also known as resources). For more information, see Using Non-Natural Files - Resource in the Programming Guide.

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X-Arrays

With this version of Natural, X-arrays (eXtendible arrays) are supported. For further information on purpose, definition and usage of X-arrays, see X-Arrays in the Programming Guide.

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Centralized DDM Storage

The new system file FDDM is a container where all DDMs can be stored. For more information, see System File FDDM in the Operations documentation.

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Statements

The following new Natural statements are provided in this version:

Statement Description
DEFINE FUNCTION Create new user-defined functions which may be called instead of operands in the Natural statements.
DEFINE PROTOTYPE Specify a signature according to a certain function call.
OPTIONS Used to specify compilation options as parameters for the current Natural programming object.
PARSE XML Parse XML documents from a Natural program.

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System Functions

As of this version, all new system functions are preceded by an asterisk (*) to avoid conflicts with, for example, user-defined variables in existing applications.

The following new Natural system functions are provided in this version:

System Function Description
*MINVAL/*MAXVAL Evaluate the minimum/maximum value of all given operand values.
*TRANSLATE Translate the operand to lower/upper case characters.
*TRIM Remove leading and/or trailing blanks from a string.

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Parameters

The following new Natural profile parameters are provided in this version:

Profile Parameter Description
CP Defines the default code page for Natural data.

Note:
The existing CP parameter (used with Natural Remote Procedure Call) has been renamed to CPRPC.

CPCVERR Specifies whether a conversion error that occurs when converting from Unicode to code page or from code page to Unicode or from one code page to another code page results in a Natural error or not.
CPOBJIN Specifies the code page of the batch input file which is defined by the Natural profile parameter CMOBJIN.
CPPRINT Specifies the code page of the batch output file which is defined by the Natural profile parameter CMPRINT.
CPSYNIN Specifies the code page of the batch input file for commands which is defined by the Natural profile parameter CMSYNIN.
CPRPC Specifies the name of the code page used by the EntireX Broker.
DO Specifies how fields are to be interpreted for display on terminals that support bidirectional data.
EMFM Activates/deactivates the Edit Mask Free mode at session startup.
FDDM Defines five subparameters for the Natural system file for DDMs.
FREEGDA Releases the GDA in Utility Activation.
KCHECK Checks field declarations in a programming object against a set of critical Natural keywords.
MASKCME Used to control Natural's compiler: to make the MASK option compatible to MOVE EDITED.
MAXYEAR Allows valid year values of up to 9999 instead of 2699 for date and time values.
MFSET Specifies whether multi-fetch is used to retrieve records from Adabas databases.
NCFVERS Enables downward compatibility with Natural Versions lower than Version 6.1 and specifies the protocol version of the Entire Connection format file (.NCF) to be used.
NENTRY Left/right alignment of numeric field entries.
NOSSLPRX Specifies the domain(s) to be addressed directly, that is, not via the SSL proxy.
PCHECK Used to control Natural's compiler: to check parameters that are specified in a CALLNAT statement.
PSIGNF Internal representation of positive sign of packed numbers.
RCFIND Determines the action to be taken if Adabas Response Code 113 (requested ISN not found) is returned during the execution of a FIND statement processing loop.
RCGET Determines the action to be taken if Adabas Response Code 113 (requested ISN not found) is returned during the execution of a GET statement.
RTINT Specifies whether a running Natural application may be interrupted.
SRETAIN Specifies that all sources have to be saved in their original encoding format.
SSLPRX Specifies the URL of the (intranet) SSL proxy server through which all requests have to be routed.
SSLPRXPT Specifies the port number of the SSL proxy.
SRVWAIT Specifies the number of seconds the server is to wait for an RPC client request.
SUBCHAR Substitution character for code page.
SUTF8 Specifies the default format to be used when Natural sources are saved.
THSEP Dynamic thousands separator. Enables or disables the use of thousands separators at compilation time.
THSEPCH Thousands separator. Specifies the character to be used as a thousands separator at runtime.
TQMARK Controls the translation of a quotation mark (") within a Natural text constant.
WEBIO Specifies whether the terminal emulation or the new Natural Web I/O Interface, which supports Unicode, is used for input and output.

The following new Natural session parameters are provided in this version:

Session Parameter Description
DL Specifies the display length for an alphanumeric map field of format U.
CPCVERR Specifies whether a conversion error that occurs when converting from Unicode to code page or from code page to Unicode or from one code page to another code page results in a Natural error or not.
EMU Edit mask in Unicode.
ICU Insertion character in Unicode.
LCU Leading characters in Unicode.
TCU Trailing characters in Unicode.

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System Variables

The following new Natural system variables are provided in this version:

System Variable Description
*BROWSER-IO Indicates that the application is running in a web browser. An application can run in a web browser via the Natural Web I/O Interface.
*CODEPAGE Returns the IANA name of the code page currently used.
*CURRENT-UNIT Contains the name of the currently executed unit.
*LBOUND Contains the current lower boundary (index value) of an array for the specified dimension(s) (1, 2 or 3) or for all dimensions (* notation).
*LINE Contains the number of the line currently executed in a Natural object.
*LOCALE Contains the language and country of the current locale.
*TP Contains the name of the TP subsystem under which Natural is running.
*TPVERS Contains the name of the TP subsystem under which Natural is running.
*TYPE Contains the type of the Natural object which is currently executed.
*UBOUND Contains the current upper boundary (index value) of an array for the specified dimension(s) (1, 2 or 3) or for all dimensions (* notation).

The following new Natural system variables are automatically created for each PARSE statement issued.

System Variable Description
*PARSE-COL Specifies the column where the parser is currently working at.
*PARSE-LEVEL Specifies the level of currently nested elements.
*PARSE-NAMESPACE-URI Specifies the namespace URI of the current element/attribute, if the element/attributes belong to a namespace.
*PARSE-ROW Specifies the row where the parser is currently working at.
*PARSE-TYPE Specifies the type of the delivered data.

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System Commands

The following new Natural system commands are provided in this version:

System Command Description
LIST ERR Displays the file information of error message(s) or error message containers of a library.
LIST RES Displays the file information about resource object(s) of a library.
RENAME Rename a Natural programming object.

Note:
This system command is not supported in a remote environment.

SYSEXV This command invokes the SYSEXV application with examples of the new features of the current Natural versions.

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Constants

The following new Natural constants are provided in this version:

Type of Constant Description
Unicode text constant (U) See Unicode Constants in the Programming Guide.
Unicode hexadecimal constant (UH) See Unicode Hexadecimal Constants in the Programming Guide.

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Utilities

The following new Natural utility is provided in this version:

Utility Description
SYSAPI Used to locate application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by Natural add-on products. A user interface is only provided via SPoD.

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Application Programming Interfaces

The utility SYSEXT provides the following new application programming interfaces (APIs):

API Description
USR1023N Convert *TIMESTMP and other variables containing time information into a different format.
USR2018N Read Natural object directory.
USR2035N Set SSL parameter string for communication via RPC.
USR2073N Ping or terminate an RPC server.
USR2075N Terminate EntireX Broker Service. Used with Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC).
USR4003N Retrieve Natural stack information (alphanumeric).
USR4004N Retrieve dynamic Natural profile parameters.
USR4007N Get/set current value of profile parameter SYNERR.
USR4201N Define a data area source.
USR4206N List objects in a library and return directory information. Avoids combined calls of the application programming interfaces USR1055N (list objects in a library) and USR2018N (read Natural object directory) in order to retrieve directory information.
USR4208N Read or write shared resource.
USR4209N Return short name of subroutine.
USR4210N Base64 conversion of alphanumeric and binary bytes.
USR6001N Call external XSLT processor.
USR6002N Get the current values of the internal counters MADIO, MAINPR and MAXCL.
USR6006N Get path to system file.
USR6202N Get and set value of an environment variable.
USR6203N Get the path of a resource. Add and delete resources.
USR6204N Set Natural profile parameter PROGRAM.
USR6303N Retrieve Natural stack information (Unicode).

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