There is one major difference between this demo of Simply Natural and the actual
system. I have "hardcoded" the demo to work with the alphabetically first statement
in Natural, namely ACCEPT (okay, REJECT is also part of the demo). Simply Natural
itself has a Selection Box where you select a statement from a scrolling list.
I have also "hardcoded" the demo to start with "Text".
The "Text" button contains the equivalent of a classroom lecture on the statement you
will have selected. The "List" button is simply a list of all the programs referenced
in the Text.
I have also hardcoded the demo to reference a single issue of Inside Natural.The actual system
contains links to 5 years of Inside Natural, and will be kept up to date as new issues
are released.
As you read through the text you will see standard web links to named programs.
Clicking these links will result in the display of the selected programs, and their
output, on the right side of your web page. Thus, you can read commentary about a
program and its output, while looking at the code itself.
Suppose you have been working with Simply Natural for awhile. You remember seeing a program
about ACCEPT/REJECT that has to do with the use of ACCEPT in a subroutine. You don't want
to scroll through the entire lecture. You want to go to the program.
The List option displays a list of all the programs for the selected statement, along
with a description of the program sufficient to allow you to select from the list.
Additional information
---------------------------------
Almost every program has two INCLUDE statements. The first is INCLUDE AASETC (or, AASETCR,
for Report Mode). This is a single AT END OF PAGE clause which contain a single statement,
SET CONTROL 'C'. This causes output to not only be displayed, but also copied to the editor
workspace. I use this to create Natural program objects which contain not only the
programs, but also the relevant output. You will see this when you view any program.
The second INCLUDE is INCLUDE AATITLER. This has an AT TOP OF PAGE clause that creates
the headings for every output page. Although they are not there in Simply Natural itself,
for this demo, I have included links to these two copycode members in the program listing.
Most programs in Simply Natural are in Structured Mode, except when there is a discussion
that pertains just to Report Mode or what I call "Mixed Mode" (Report Mode syntax with
a DEFINE DATA clause). This reflects my observation that most new code is being
developed using Structured Mode.
IMPORTANT. Once you start the demo, you can always return to the homepage of the
website by clicking on the link "Return to home page" which is located towards
the right of the top "frame" of the demo.
ALSO IMPORTANT. This demo is ideally viewed at a screen resolution
of 1024x768. If you run it at 800x600, or lower, certain frames will
"fold". By that I mean the contents of what should be one line
will extend to two lines. Even worse, text that should not require a
vertical scroll will have a vertical scroll, making the screen
quite "messy". When released, the Web Browser front end will
query the resolution and adjust images/text accordingly.
MORE IMPORTANT STUFF. All browsers are not created "equal". For
example, Internet Explorer, which is far and away the most common browser
to be found in the workplace and home, is a very "forgiving" browser. Example,
it will accept "& n b s p" as a blank space, whereas, for example, Opera,
a browser increasing in popularity due to its lack of viruses, insists on the
semi colon at the end of "& n b s p". Apparently, I copied once and missed the semicolon,
then pasted this in many places. Internet Explorer "forgave" my error,
Opera did not. If you find any such browser trangressions, please let me know.
One last point. The user interface is not yet "cast in stone". If you have some
suggestions for improving the interface, please contact us. The home page
contains information on various ways to do this.
Okay, time for the demo. Simply click here to
Start the Demo
Or, click here to return to the
Home Page