This document covers the following topics:
As of Natural Version 6.3.8, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are also supported, in addition to the operating systems listed in the section Supported Operating Systems of the release information for Natural Version 6.3.1.
Important:
Adabas for Windows 7 and Entire Net-Work for Windows 7 will only
be available by the second quarter of 2010. Therefore, when you install Natural
Version 6.3.8 on Windows 7, it is currently not possible to install Natural
Security or Predict.
If you want to migrate from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 on the existing hardware, you must re-install Natural Version 6.3.8 on Windows 7. This is due to the changed directory structure as of Natural 6.3.3. An upgrade installation is not offered in this case.
If you remain on Windows XP or Windows Vista, you can use the upgrade installation.
Natural now provides functions for encoding or decoding URL addresses, and for converting binary data into printable, network-compatible data (or vice versa) using Base64 encoding. For further information, see Natural Functions in the System Functions documentation.
The utility SYSEXT provides the following new
application programming interfaces (APIs):
| API | Description |
|---|---|
USR4217N |
Send data to the webMethods Optimize for Infrastructure Data Collector. |
USR4218N |
Provide information on the context in which the Natural Development Server runs, for example, the version of the client. |
Natural for Ajax is now delivered in the Version 1.2.5. It is based on Application Designer Version 8.0.
The Natural Web I/O Interface is now delivered in the Version 1.3.6.
Support is provided for the following:
It is now possible to define underlined, blinking, italic and bold text using style sheets. XSLT files are no longer used for this purpose (Java EE-based servers only). See Using Style Sheets in Configuring the Client which is part of the Natural Web I/O Interface documentation.
When a floating point operand (format F) is assigned to a numeric or
packed operand (format N or P), the result as compared to Natural Version 6.3.7
may be different. As of Natural Version 6.3.8, the result of the
COMPUTE statement will not be rounded any more if the
ROUNDED option is not used. This applies regardless of whether the
operand has been explicitly defined by the user or implicitly created by
Natural to hold intermediate results (see example 2 below). This change has
been made in the runtime and is therefore effective when executing programs
with Natural Version 6.3.8. It is not necessary to recatalog the programs.
DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1 #SRC (F8) 1 #TAR (N2.6) END-DEFINE #SRC := 14.9999999 COMPUTE #TAR := #SRC PRINT #TAR COMPUTE ROUNDED #TAR := #SRC PRINT #TAR END
Results in Natural Version 6.3.7:
15.000000 15.000000
Results in Natural Version 6.3.8:
14.999999 15.000000
DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1 #SRC (N11.7) 1 #TAR (N2.7) END-DEFINE #SRC := 224.9999999 COMPUTE #TAR = SQRT(#SRC) /* INTERMEDIATE F8 FIELD PRINT #TAR COMPUTE ROUNDED #TAR = SQRT(#SRC) PRINT #TAR END
Results in Natural Version 6.3.7:
15.0000000 15.0000000
Results in Natural Version 6.3.8:
14.9999999 15.0000000
A new workspace option, Context menu for drag-and-drop with left mouse button, is available. By default, this option is disabled. When you enable it, a context menu will appear when you drag and drop objects using the left mouse button. You can then choose whether to copy or move the objects. For a copy operation, it is then no longer required to press CTRL. See Workspace Options in Using Natural Studio.
Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is available as a separate subcomponent of Natural. It has its own version number. This measure takes into account that Natural RPC is a cross-platform component and makes it possible to provide new Natural RPC versions independent of new Natural versions for the various platforms supported.
With Natural Version 6.3.8, an enhanced Natural Remote Procedure Call Version 6.3.3.3 is delivered that replaces the existing Natural RPC Versions 6.3.3.1 and 6.3.3.2.
As of Version 6.3 of Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC), the following changes and enhancements are available.
If you have generated a stub subprogram from an IDL file using the command of NaturalONE or EntireX Workbench, program and library name of the IDL file are incorporated into the generated stub subprogram and passed to the RPC server. This means especially that the name of the program that is executed on the RPC server may be different to the name of the stub subprogram.
If the Natural client calls a Natural RPC server, the library name of the IDL file is only evaluated by the Natural RPC server if the Natural client has set the Logon option.
The following changes are planned for future versions of Natural.
With a future version of Natural, Adabas records will no longer be put
in hold status if the Natural profile parameter
DBUPD is set to
OFF (that is, when a database update is not permitted). When set
to OFF, the Adabas calls L1, L2,
L3, S1, S2, S3 will be
generated instead of L4, L5, L6,
S4, S5, S6.
