Natural Text Modules and Macros

This document describes the Natural text modules NATTEXT, NATTXT2, NATTXT2U, NATTXT3 and the Natural macro NTERMSG.


Function and Usage of Text Modules

All Natural keywords, alternative keywords and standard output text are contained in the modules NATTEXT and NATTXT2. Natural system commands and alternate system commands are also included as keywords and alternative keywords in these modules. Substitution text fragments for Natural error messages are contained in module NATTXT3. The modules are contained in source form in the Natural source library and in load module form in the Natural load library.

If necessary, you can modify Natural keywords, alternative keywords and text contained in these modules. For example, Natural session termination messages can be changed from English to another language, Natural keywords can be disabled, or synonyms can be added.

If any modifications are made to a NATTEXT, NATTXT2 or NATTXT3 module, each modified module must be assembled, link-edited and included into the executable Natural module; refer to the corresponding Natural installation documentation.

NATTEXT - Natural Keyword Definitions

The NATTEXT module contains the macros NTKEY, NTALT and NTSYN for each keyword and alternative keyword to be recognized by Natural.

Modifying NATTEXT

Warning:
It is recommended that you modify the NATTEXT module for very important reasons only, because once modified, it can no longer be properly maintained by Software AG personnel.

The following rules apply:

  • A keyword value for a NTKEY or NTALT macro can be changed by replacing the current keyword value with the desired value.

  • A keyword or alternative keyword can be disabled by replacing the keyword value with the character "%".

  • The position of each NTKEY and NTALT macro within the module is fixed and must not be shifted. Additional NTKEY and NTALT macros must not be inserted.

  • Synonyms can be assigned for any keyword or alternative keyword using the NTSYN macro. One or more NTSYN macros can be inserted after a NTKEY or NTALT macro. The NTSYN macro includes one parameter, which is the value to be used as the synonym. If the synonym contains embedded blanks, the entire value must be enclosed in apostrophes.

Example of Modifying the NATTEXT Module

The following example illustrates how a NATTEXT module is modified. In this example

  • the synonym RECHERCHE is to be used for the keyword FIND;

  • the synonym LISEZ is to be used for the alternative keyword BROWSE;

  • the keywords GET and HISTOGRAM are to be disabled.

NATTEXT before modification:

STATNAM NTKEY FIND 
        NTALT BROWSE
        NTALT GET
        NTALT ACCEPT
        NTALT REJECT
        NTALT HISTOGRAM

NATTEXT after modification:

STATNAM NTKEY FIND
        NTSYN RECHERCHE
        NTALT BROWSE
        NTSYN LISEZ
        NTALT %
        NTALT ACCEPT
        NTALT REJECT
        NTALT %

NATTXT2 - Output Text, Keywords and User Termination Messages (Mixed Case)

The NATTXT2 module contains the macros NTKEYT, NTALTT and NTSYNT which define the following:

Standard Natural Output Texts

The module NATTXT2 contains the following standard Natural output texts, each of which can also be displayed in another language if the language code is set accordingly (see also below):

  • the literal Page used in the standard output page header;

  • the name of each month as used in the Natural system variable *DATG (Gregorian date), date edit masks (L), and the name of each day as used in date edit masks (N);

  • the ENTER INPUT DATA message and the skeleton error messages for error numbers 1104, 1105 and 1106 (used during online input processing);

  • the error message used for system file open failure (which cannot be retrieved from the system file); an error number of the form NAT8xxx (where xxx is the decimal Adabas response code) is added to this error message by Natural;

  • the constants More, Top and Bottom used in windows for position information to be displayed in text form;

  • the table to define reports and report handling for reports greater than 33.

Any values contained in NATTXT2 can be modified by replacing the current text with the desired text. If a month-name synonym exceeds nine characters, only the first nine positions are used by the system variable *DATG.

NTSYNT macro statements can be added as described for module NATTEXT. However, with NATTXT2, a second parameter can be specified. This parameter is optional and represents the language indicator to be used for the synonym. When you specify the language indicator, Natural produces message output resulting from the use of this synonym in the corresponding language. In addition, if error message texts have been stored in the Natural system file using a language indicator other than 1 (which is the default and stands for English), error messages are returned in the corresponding language. For information on which language code stands for which language, refer to the profile parameter ULANG.

Keywords and Alternative Keywords for Natural System Commands and Utilities

The module NATTXT2 contains NTKEYT and NTALTT macros for each keyword and alternative keyword to be recognized by Natural for the following Natural system commands and utilities, parameters of commands and their values when applicable. Each of these can also be used in another language if the language code is set accordingly (see also below):

  • all Natural system commands in general;

  • for the GLOBALS system command, the parameters and their values when applicable;

  • for the COMPOPT system command, the parameters and their values when applicable;

  • public system commands (these system commands are permanently valid and cannot be disallowed, neither by means of Natural Security nor by the Natural profile parameter NC;

  • Natural utilities

The NTKEYT and NTALTT macro statements can be used similar to the NTKEY and NTALT macro statements as described for module NATTEXT.

The NTSYNT macro statements can be used as described under Standard Natural Output Texts.

User-Written Termination Messages

User-written termination messages can be added with the macro NTERMSG for all return codes (1 - 255) which can be issued with a TERMINATE statement and which normally lead to the Natural termination message NAT9987.

You specify the termination message text with the first parameter, and the corresponding return code with the second parameter.

Example:

NTERMSG 'USR0077 THIS IS A SAMPLE USER MESSAGE FOR RETURN CODE 77',77

A TERMINATE 77 statement in a Natural application will result in the following termination message: USR0077 THIS IS A SAMPLE USER MESSAGE FOR RETURN CODE 77.

NATTXT2U - Output Text, Keywords and User Termination Messages (Uppercase)

The NATTXT2U module contains the same items as the NATTXT2 module. The difference is that certain keywords for the English language are contained in mixed case in NATTXT2 whereas they are in all uppercase in NATTXT2U. This affects the keywords MORE, TOP, BOTTOM, PAGE, and all month and weekday names.

NATTXT2U should be linked to the Natural nucleus instead of NATTXT2 in environments where lower-case code points H'81' to H'A9' are used to display national characters, for example, if code page 930 with half-width Katakana characters is used.

NATTXT3 - Text Fragments for Placeholders in Natural Error Messages

The NATTXT3 module contains the macros to define the text fragments which will be used to substitute the :n: place holder in Natural error messages.

Each text fragment can be defined in various languages. For information on which language code stands for which language, refer to the ULANG parameter.

The text fragments will be generated in EBCDIC and Unicode notation.

Note:
To assemble the NATTXT3 module, a high level assembler must be used which supports the macro function UPPER and the definition of Unicode characters (DC CU’unicode text).

Example:

The text for Natural error NAT0082 (when trying to execute a non existing program) looks as follows:

Invalid command, or :1: :2: does not exist in library.

Trying to execute the object NOTEXIST leads to following result:

NAT0082 Invalid command, or Program NOTEXIST does not exist in library.

:2: was replaced by the object name (NOTEXIST).

:1: was replaced by the text fragment Program.

The text fragment was declared in module NATTXT3 as follows:

*=============================================================== 
*              PROGRAM                  0002                     
*=============================================================== 
      MSGSDEF  &LC_PGM                                           
         SPACE                                                   
*--------------------------------------------------------------- 
      MSGSLAN  01,Program           1   ENGLISH                  
      MSGSLAN  02,Programm          2   GERMAN                   
      MSGSLAN  03,programme         3   FRENCH                   
      MSGSLAN  04,programa          4   SPANISH                  
         SPACE                                                   
*--------------------------------------------------------------- 
      MSGSGEN

Text fragment values for additional languages may be entered by adding further MSGSLAN macros.

NTERMSG - Natural Termination Messages and Return Codes

Natural has a number of standard session termination messages (NAT99...) that are delivered in macro NTERMSG and can be modified there (for example, to translate them it into another language). The overall length of ID and text can be up to 72 characters. After the macro NTERMSG has been modified, the Natural parameter module has to be re-assembled and linked.

Apart from the message ID and text, each standard termination message also includes one of the following Natural system return codes, which are also defined within macro NTERMSG:

Code Explanation
0 Normal termination.
4 Error occurred during execution/compilation (batch mode only).
8 Termination due to severe runtime error.
12 Session initialization failure.
16 Abnormal termination due to abend or severe environment failure..

With the profile parameter TS set to ON, the termination messages are translated to upper case using the upper case translation table NTUTAB1 as supplied in the NATCONFG module before they are displayed.

In addition to TS=ON, further parameters to provide for translation of messages into upper case are provided by several Natural components. For further information, see Other Parameters to Provide Upper Case Translation in the TS profile parameter description.