This document covers the following topics:
FTOUCHYou can now define that line numbers are not written to the source code in the file system. See FTOUCH Utility in the Tools and Utilities documentation.
In the Natural main menu, a minus (-) character after the library name indicates that in this library the line numbers are suppressed in the source code.
INPLThe INPL utility now automatically recognizes the type
of the load file. It is no longer necessary to specify the correct load file
type. See INPL
Utility in the Tools and Utilities
documentation.
SYSRPCSee Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC) later in these Release Notes.
LSTEPThe default value assigned to the profile parameter
LSTEP has been changed from
"STEP" to "SYSTEM".
Therefore, you have to take precautions if you create new parameter files and
your applications use these newly created parameter files and depend on objects
located in the library STEP (the former default value). The
modification of the default value implies an alteration in the default library
search order (steplib). Therefore, your applications might not run properly or
might produce unexpected results.
When you are using old parameter files in which the value
"STEP" is defined for the profile parameter
LSTEP, your existing applications which depend on
objects located in library STEP will still run properly.
If your applications do not expect objects to be located in library
STEP on FUSER or if library STEP on
FUSER is empty, your applications will run properly after the
default value change of LSTEP. The performance is
increased since the library search order decreased in size. You are encouraged
to modify LSTEP in your current installation to the
proposed new default value in order to take advantage of the above mentioned
performance increase.
LTThe range of possible values for the profile and session parameter
LT has been changed from 0 -
99999999 to 0 - 2147483647.
NCFVERSThe new value "3" is now available for the
profile parameter NCFVERS. This value indicates
that a format file of Entire Connection Protocol Version 3 is written, which is
created by Natural Version 6.3. The default value of the
NCFVERS parameter has changed from
"2" to
"3".
DECIDE ONThe SUBSTRING option can now be used as
operand1 and operand2 in
the DECIDE
ON statement. It allows you to check only a certain part of
an alphanumeric, Unicode or binary field.
FORAn arithmetic expression can now be used as
operand2, operand3 and
operand4 in the
FOR
statement.
*SERVER-TYPEThe new value "WEBIO" of the
*SERVER-TYPE variable
indicates that Natural has been started as a Natural Web I/O Interface server.
The Natural Web Interface now also supports Apache Version 2.2.x HTTP servers. For further information, see Supported HTTP Servers and Natural Web Server Extensions for MOD in the Web Technology documentation.
Using the Web Interface on a remote machine without EntireX technology is now possible via the PAL interface as used for the SPoD server.
The server extension program initializes a communication directly to
the PAL server instead of, for example, using RPC. Because all Web Interface
programs are subroutines, and it is not possible to run a subroutine directly
using PAL, a generic stub is necessary. This stub handles steplib setting,
parameter transfer and CALLNAT of the subprogram.
For further information, see Communication Using PAL Techniques and Functionality in the Web Technology documentation.
The SHUTDOWN command of the
NATBPMON utility has been enhanced to quickly shut down a buffer
pool. It is now possible to specify the FORCE option with an
optional parameter. If NATBPMON SHUTDOWN FORCE
grace-period is executed with super
user rights, the terminate signal SIGTERM is sent to all active
Natural sessions. After the expiry of the seconds defined with the
grace-period parameter, the IPC resources held by
the buffer pool are removed from the system. This command only has effect if
executed with super user rights; without these rights, NATBPMON
will reject its execution. See
NATBPMON Commands in the
Operations documentation.
When you print an object, the database ID and file number are now included on the printout.
The content of the NCF format files which are created for the work file type Entire Connection has changed. Now the information fields that were empty before are also filled with the work file processing information. The content of the information field File name has changed; the file name and path are now included in the information field. Since Unicode is now supported for NCD files, a new information field is available in the NCF file, containing code page information.
The environment variable SET
PALTRACE=nbr has been dropped. If you want to trace the Pal, you
have to use NCTR_TRACE for this purpose. The
prerequisite is a Natural version which has been optimized for tracing or a
debug version. The file NCTR.cfg has to be adapted
accordingly.
The ability to use an external editor like "vi" within a Natural session has been reestablished. However, the use of such an external editor is not recommended as code page conflicts may arise. These conflicts can - but not necessarily must - deteriorate your source code.