A fourth-generation programming language (4GL) is any

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

programming language that belongs to a class of languages envisioned as an advancement upon third-generation programming languages (3GL). Each of the programming language generations aims to provide a higher level of abstraction of the internal

computer hardware Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the computer case, case, central processing unit (CPU), Random-access memory, random access memory (RAM), Computer monitor, monitor, Computer mouse, mouse, Computer keyboard, ...

details, making the language more

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

-friendly, powerful, and versatile. While the definition of 4GL has changed over time, it can be typified by operating more with large collections of information at once rather than focusing on just bits and bytes. Languages claimed to be 4GL may include support for database management,

report generation A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents. Usage In ...

mathematical optimization Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfi ...

, GUI development, or

web development Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications ...

. Some researchers state that 4GLs are a subset of

domain-specific language A domain-specific language (DSL) is a computer language specialized to a particular application domain. This is in contrast to a general-purpose language (GPL), which is broadly applicable across domains. There are a wide variety of DSLs, ranging f ...

s. The concept of 4GL was developed from the 1970s through the 1990s, overlapping most of the development of 3GL, with 4GLs identified as "non-procedural" or "program-generating" languages, contrasted with 3GLs being algorithmic or procedural languages. While 3GLs like C, C++, C#, Java, and JavaScript remain popular for a wide variety of uses, 4GLs as originally defined found uses focused on databases, reports, and websites. Some advanced 3GLs like Python, Ruby, and Perl combine some 4GL abilities within a general-purpose 3GL environment, and libraries with 4GL-like features have been developed as add-ons for most popular 3GLs, producing languages that are a mix of 3GL and 4GL, blurring the distinction. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were efforts to develop

fifth-generation programming language A fifth-generation programming language (5GL) is any programming language based on problem-solving using constraints given to the program, rather than using an algorithm written by a programmer. Most constraint-based and logic programming languag ...

s (5GL).

History

Though used earlier in papers and discussions, the term 4GL was first used formally by James Martin in his 1981 book ''Applications Development Without Programmers'' to refer to non-procedural, high-level specification languages. In some primitive way, early 4GLs were included in the

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...

MARK-IV (1967) product and

Sperry Sperry may refer to: Places In the United States: *Sperry, Iowa, community in Des Moines County *Sperry, Missouri *Sperry, Oklahoma, town in Tulsa County *Sperry Chalet, historic backcountry chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana *Sperry Glacier, ...

's MAPPER (1969 internal use, 1979 release). The motivations for the '4GL' inception and continued interest are several. The term can apply to a large set of software products. It can also apply to an approach that looks for greater

semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

properties and implementation power. Just as the 3GL offered greater power to the programmer, so too did the 4GL open up the development environment to a wider population. The early input scheme for the 4GL supported entry of data within the 72-character limit of the punched card (8 bytes used for sequencing) where a card's tag would identify the type or function. With judicious use of a few cards, the 4GL deck could offer a wide variety of processing and reporting capability whereas the equivalent functionality coded in a 3GL could subsume, perhaps, a whole box or more of cards. The 72-character format continued for a while as hardware progressed to larger memory and terminal interfaces. Even with its limitations, this approach supported highly sophisticated applications. As interfaces improved and allowed longer statement lengths and grammar-driven input handling, greater power ensued. An example of this is described on the Nomad page. ::Another example of Nomad's power is illustrated by Nicholas Rawlings in his comments for the Computer History Museum about NCSS (see citation below). He reports that James Martin asked Rawlings for a Nomad solution to a standard problem Martin called the ''Engineer's Problem'': "give 6% raises to engineers whose job ratings had an average of 7 or better." Martin provided a "dozen pages of COBOL, and then just a page or two of Mark IV, from

." Rawlings offered the following single statement, performing a set-at-a-time operation... The development of the 4GL was influenced by several factors, with the hardware and operating system constraints having a large weight. When the 4GL was first introduced, a disparate mix of hardware and operating systems mandated custom application development support that was specific to the system in order to ensure sales. One example is the MAPPER system developed by

. Though it has roots back to the beginning, the system has proven successful in many applications and has been ported to modern platforms. The latest variant is embedded in the BIS offering of Unisys. MARK-IV is now known as VISION:BUILDER and is offered by Computer Associates. Santa Fe railroad used MAPPER to develop a system, in a project that was an early example of 4GL,

rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printin ...

, and programming by users. The idea was that it was easier to teach railroad experts to use MAPPER than to teach programmers the "intricacies of railroad operations". One of the early (and portable) languages that had 4GL properties was

Ramis RAMIS ("Random Access Management Information System") is a fourth-generation programming language (4GL) capable of creating and maintaining databases consisting of named files containing both numeric and alphabetic fields and subsequently producing ...

developed by Gerald C. Cohen at

Mathematica Wolfram Mathematica is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allow machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network analysis, time series analysis, NLP, optimizat ...

, a mathematical software company. Cohen left Mathematica and founded Information Builders to create a similar reporting-oriented 4GL, called FOCUS. Later 4GL types are tied to a database system and are far different from the earlier types in their use of techniques and resources that have resulted from the general improvement of computing with time. An interesting twist to the 4GL scene is realization that graphical interfaces and the related reasoning done by the user form a 'language' that is poorly understood.

Types

A number of different types of 4GLs exist: * Table-driven (codeless) programming, usually running with a runtime framework and libraries. Instead of using code, the developer defines their logic by selecting an operation in a pre-defined list of memory or data table manipulation commands. In other words, instead of coding, the developer uses table-driven algorithm programming (see also control tables that can be used for this purpose). A good example of this type of 4GL language is PowerBuilder. These types of tools can be used for business application development usually consisting in a package allowing for both business data manipulation and reporting, therefore they come with GUI screens and report editors. They usually offer integration with lower level DLLs generated from a typical 3GL for when the need arise for more hardware/OS specific operations. * Report-generator programming languages take a description of the data format and the report to generate and from that they either generate the required report directly or they generate a program to generate the report. See also

RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

*Similarly, forms generators manage online interactions with the application system users or generate programs to do so. * More ambitious 4GLs (sometimes termed ''fourth generation environments'') attempt to automatically generate whole systems from the outputs of

CASE Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...

tools, specifications of screens and reports, and possibly also the specification of some additional processing logic. *

Data management Data management comprises all disciplines related to handling data as a valuable resource. Concept The concept of data management arose in the 1980s as technology moved from sequential processing (first punched cards, then magnetic tape) to r ...

4GLs such as

SAS SAS or Sas may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''SAS'' (novel series), a French book series by Gérard de Villiers * ''Shimmer and Shine'', an American animated children's television series * Southern All Stars, a Japanese rock ba ...

, SPSS, and

Stata Stata (, , alternatively , occasionally stylized as STATA) is a general-purpose statistical software package developed by StataCorp for data manipulation, visualization, statistics, and automated reporting. It is used by researchers in many fie ...

provide sophisticated coding

commands Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

for data manipulation, file reshaping, case selection, and data documentation in the preparation of data for

statistical analysis Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying distribution of probability.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers propertie ...

and reporting. *So-called "XTalk" languages, developed initially with Apple's Hypercard in 1987. Hypercard was the progenitor of more modern and powerful programs such as SuperCard, Toolbook and LiveCode. Some 4GLs have integrated tools that allow for the easy specification of all the required information: * James Martin's version of

data engineering Data engineering refers to the building of systems to enable the collection and usage of data. This data is usually used to enable subsequent analysis and data science; which often involves machine learning. Making the data usable usually involv ...

systems development methodology In software engineering, a software development process is a process of dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design, product management. It is also known as a software devel ...

was automated to allow the input of the results of system analysis and design in the form of data flow diagrams, entity relationship diagrams,

entity life history diagram Jackson System Development (JSD) is a linear software development methodology developed by Michael A. Jackson and John Cameron in the 1980s. History JSD was first presented by Michael A. Jackson in 1982, in a paper called "A System Development Me ...

s etc., from which hundreds of thousands of lines of

COBOL COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily us ...

would be generated overnight. * More recently

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...

's Oracle Designer and Oracle Developer Suite 4GL products could be integrated to produce database definitions and the forms and reports programs.

Low code environments

In the twenty-first century, 4GL systems have emerged as "low code" environments or platforms for the problem of rapid application development in short periods of time. Vendors often provide sample systems such as CRM, contract management, bug tracking from which development can occur with little programming.

Examples

General use / versatile

* 4th Dimension * Accell/SQL (4GL) from Unify Corporation. *Broadcom 2e Formerly Synon 4GL RPG/COBOL Generator * CA-Telon 4GL Cobol/PLI generator *

Clarion Clarion may refer to: Music * Clarion (instrument), a type of trumpet used in the Middle Ages * The register of a clarinet that ranges from B4 to C6 * A trumpet organ stop that usually plays an octave above unison pitch * "Clarion" (song), a 2 ...

Clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...

* Cognos PowerHouse 4GL * DataFlex (Microsoft Windows, web, mobile) * DATATRIEVE *

dBase dBase (also stylized dBASE) was one of the first database management systems for microcomputers and the most successful in its day. The dBase system includes the core database engine, a query system, a forms engine, and a programming language ...

* FileMaker * FOCUS * Forté TOOL (transactional object-oriented language) * GeneXus *

Harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

* HyperCard (development and support were ended) *IBM Rational EGL ( Enterprise Generation Language) * LabVIEW * LANSA * LINC * LiveCode *

M-Power m-Power is a low-code development platform that uses a point-and-click interface to create enterprise web applications. M-Power is developed with open source languages such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. Applications created by m-Power run on any ...

* NATURAL * Omnis Studio SDK * Oracle Application Development Framework *

OutSystems OutSystems is a Low-code development platform which provides tools for companies to develop, deploy and manage omnichannel enterprise applications. OutSystems was founded in 2001 in Lisbon, Portugal. In June 2018 OutSystems secured a $360M ro ...

(Productivity/PaaS) * Jmix/CUBA Platform (Productivity/Framework) * PowerBuilder * R:Base *

SheerPower4GL SheerPower 4GL is a fourth-generation programming language developed by ''Touch Technologies, Inc.'' SheerPower 4GL is the result of porting Touch Technologies' ''Intouch 4GL'' programming language that runs on OpenVMS (for DEC Alpha and VAX comput ...

(Microsoft Windows only) * SQLWindows/

Team Developer Gupta Technologies, Limited liability company, LLC was a software development company based in Roseville, California, Roseville, Placer County, California. It was later renamed to Centura Software in the late 1990s and then to Halo Technology H ...

* Uniface * Unix Shell * Visual FoxPro (development and support were ended) * XBase++ * Xojo * ZIM:X

Database query languages

* FOCUS * 4D QL * Informix-4GL * NATURAL * OpenEdge ABL * OpenROAD (Ingres 4GL) *

* SQL * ZIM:X

Report generators

* LINC * Oracle Reports *

Progress 4GL OpenEdge Advanced Business Language, or OpenEdge ABL for short, is a business application development language created and maintained by Progress Software Corporation (PSC). The language, typically classified as a fourth-generation programmin ...

Query/Results * RPG-II * ZIM:X Extract data from files or database to create reports in a wide range of formats is done by the report generator tools.

Data manipulation, analysis, and reporting languages

* Ab Initio * ABAP *

Audit Command Language Galvanize (formerly known as ACL Services Ltd.) is a privately owned software as a service Software as a service, (SaaS) company founded and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Company builds security, risk management, comp ...

* Clarion Programming Language * CorVision * Culprit * ADS/Online (plus transaction processing) * Easytrieve * FOCUS *

GraphTalk Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Ente ...

IDL IDL may refer to: Computing * Interface description language, any computer language used to describe a software component's interface ** IDL specification language, the original IDL created by Lamb, Wulf and Nestor at Queen's University, Canada ...

IGOR Pro IGOR Pro is a scientific data analysis software, numerical computing environment and programming language that runs on Windows or Mac operating systems. It is developed by WaveMetrics Inc., and was originally aimed at time series analysis, but ha ...

* Informix-4GL *

JSL JSL may refer to: * JSL, Joint Station LAN, International Space Station * JSL S.A., a Brazilian logistic company * '' Japanese: The Spoken Language'', a Japanese textbook ** JSL romanization, the romanization system used in the text * Jamaican Sig ...

* Judoscript * LANSA *

* LabVIEW * LiveCode * MANTIS * MAPPER ( Unisys/Sperry) now part of BIS * MARK-IV ( Sterling/Informatics) now VISION:BUILDER of CA * Simulink a component of MATLAB * NATURAL * Nomad *

Octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

* PL/SQL *

* R *

* S *

Scilab Scilab is a free and open-source, cross-platform numerical computational package and a high-level, numerically oriented programming language. It can be used for signal processing, statistical analysis, image enhancement, fluid dynamics simulat ...

* SPSS * SQL PL *

SQR SQR (Hyperion SQR Production Reporting, Part of OBIEE) is a programming language designed for generating reports from database management systems. The name is an abbreviation of Structured Query Reporter, which suggests its relationship to SQL ...

Synon Synon was a software company which, at its height, dominated the worldwide market for third-party application development tools for the IBM i (formerly AS/400) platform. Its products continue to be used in that sector today, distributed and sup ...

* Wolfram Language * XBase++ * XQuery *

XSLT XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents, or other formats such as HTML for web pages, plain text or XSL Formatting Objects, which may subseque ...

* ZIM:X

Software creators

4th Dimension (Software) 4D (4th Dimension, or Silver Surfer, as it was known during early development) is a relational database management system and IDE developed by Laurent Ribardière. 4D was created in 1984 and had a slightly delayed public release for Macinto ...

* LiveCode * MATLAB's GUIDE * Omnis Studio * OpenROAD *

AppBuilder *

SuperTalk SuperTalk is the scripting language used in SuperCard. SuperTalk is a descendant of HyperTalk. Extensions to the HyperTalk base language Additional syntax One of the most powerful features SuperCard adds to the HyperTalk language is ''user prope ...

Visual DataFlex DataFlex is an object-oriented high-level programming language and a fourth generation visual tool 4GL for developing Windows, web and mobile software applications on one framework-based platform. It was introduced and developed by ''Data Access ...

* Xojo * XUL Can be used with XQuery * ZIM:X

Mathematical optimization

* AIMMS * AMPL * GAMS * MathProg * MATLAB *

* ZIM:X

Database-driven GUI application development

* C/AL * Genexus * SB+/SystemBuilder *

Unify VISION Daegis Inc. (formerly Unify Corporation) was one of the early developers of database management systems and tools for database development. It was founded in 1980 and headquartered in Irving, Texas. Unify initially focused on providing databases ...

* ZIM:X

Low code / No code development platforms

* 1C:Enterprise programming language *

Appcelerator Appcelerator is a privately held mobile technology company based in San Jose, California. Its main products are Titanium, an open-source software development kit for cross-platform mobile development, and the Appcelerator Platform. Founded in 20 ...

* Appian *

Bizagi Bizagi is a privately owned software company established in 1989 with headquarters in the US, and offices in UK, Spain, Germany & Latin America. Its name is a portmanteau of "business" and "agility". The company provides enterprise software for ...

DronaHQ DronaHQ, is a low code app development platform, from Deltecs InfoTech Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India that helps to build internal tools, and business apps. The platform advertises multi-experience output (Mobile & Web) with visual builders, online dat ...

* K2 * Kony * LANSA *

* Mendix *

* Pegasystems *

PNMsoft PNMsoft is a global software company which provides BPM (Business Process Management) software. Its product, Sequence, is a BPM software suite which enables building workflow applications with the purpose of improving business operations. Histo ...

* Progress * ServiceNow *

Servoy Servoy is a development and deployment platform for enterprise applications, written itself in Java, and which uses JavaScript as its scripting language. It can adopt the native look and feel of any platform or the web, using HTML5 and CSS code. S ...

* ViziApps *

WEM Wem may refer to: * HMS ''Wem'' (1919), a minesweeper of the Royal Navy during World War I *Weem, a village in Perthshire, Scotland * Wem, a small town in Shropshire, England *Wem (musician), hip hop musician WEM may stand for: * County Westmeath, ...

Screen painters and generators

* Oracle Forms *

ProVision * SB+/SystemBuilder * ZIM:X

Web development languages

* ActiveVFP * CFML * LANSA *

Wavemaker WaveMaker is an enterprise grade Java low code platform for building software applications and platforms. WaveMaker Inc. is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For enterprises, WaveMaker is a low code platform that aims to accelerate the ...

* ZIMWEB

Music Programming language

* MaxMSP

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fourth-Generation Programming Language Programming language classification Fourth-generation programming languages