4GL Design Resources?

Dracos asks: "Some friends and I are developing a tabletop fantasy RPG. The concept for our magic rules is based on a fourth generation language ^[?] , combined with an object model. I've spent the last few days searching the net, but all I've found is information on how to design data structures for use with 4GLs, not 4GLs themselves. The related alt.lang.* newsgroups appear to be dead.Does anyone know of any resources on how to design a 4GL? Information of our game, as well as the rules, can be found at http://www.thedragonsforge.com."

Informix 4GL

[tooth]

The only place I've seen 4gl recently is informix [informix.com] 4gl [informix.com]. It's a mainly used in relation to thier database.

They might have a pdf file with some info that you are looking for, but I doubt it.

ObjectSim

[Kaufmann]

I'm currently working on ObjectSim, a minimalist OO language based on transparently accessing remote object stores through pattern matching. Its design is quite unlike that of most other languages, I suppose the "feel" is more akin to that of, say, SQL or other stereotypical "4GLs" than of "traditional" programming languages. This is despite ObjectSim being Turing-complete.

I have a more complete description of ObjectSim, and the first implementation (on Scheme, and still using s-expression syntax) is slated for later this month. We're discussing it (amongst other things) on the Cat's Eye [catseye.mb.ca] mailing list.

OpenRoad and PL/SQL

[bug-eyed monster]

Oracle's PL/SQL is considered a 4GL, you can find all kinds of documentation on it at technet.oracle.com [oracle.com].

Also many years ago I did a lot of work with Ingres's OpenRoad [ca.com] which used to be called Windows4GL. It's basically a GUI-builder/runtime product that uses its own 4GL and a lot of OO concepts to implement client-server systems. I'm not sure what it's evolved into the past few years, but it's worth checkin out.