This tutorial provides a very simple and brief introduction to programming with Natural and to using the Natural editors.
Important:
It is important that you read the following topics in the
sequence indicated below, and that you work through all exercises in these
topics in the same sequence as they appear in this tutorial. Problems may occur
if you skip an exercise.
| About this Tutorial | Prerequisites and what you will learn in the course of this tutorial. |
| Getting Started with Natural | How to invoke Natural's main menu. How to create the library that will be used in this tutorial. Information on Natural's programming modes and the mode that is required for this tutorial. |
| Hello World! | How to create, run and stow your first short program. How to display the content of the current library. Information on some options which control your editor profile. |
| Database Access | How to read specific data from a database and display the output. |
| User Input | How to prompt the user for information and how to design a map for user input. How to ensure that a specific value is always used (here: an ending name), even if it has not been specified by the user. |
| Loops and Labels | How to define a repeat loop and labels for different loops. How to display a message when specific information (here: the starting name entered by the user) was not found. |
| Inline Subroutines | How to define and invoke an inline subroutine (that is: a subroutine which is coded directly in the program). |
| Processing Rules and Helproutines | How to define a processing rule (here: a message that is to appear when the user does not specify a starting name) and a helproutine (here: a help text for the field in which the user has to enter a starting name). |
| Local Data Areas | How to relocate the field definitions from the program to a local data area outside the program. |
| Global Data Areas | How to define a global data area which can be shared by multiple programs or routines. |
| External Subroutines | How to define and invoke an external subroutine (that is: a subroutine which is stored as a separate object outside the program). |
| Subprograms | How to define a parameter data area for a subprogram. How to define and invoke a subprogram. |