What is Simply Natural?

To understand Simply Natural, you should understand its origins. I have been teaching Natural since it arrived in the States in 1978. Early on I realized that Natural was best taught with the aid of a Library of Natural programs. This Library eventually evolved into a marketable software product called, appropriately enough, The Natural Library. The Library has continued to expand; today numbering over 1500 objects. Several years ago, a command at a time, I began to create a written version of my lectures. I would take a command like ACCEPT/REJECT; "talk" my way through the command, using the Library examples as "background"; that is, I would reference the examples as I wrote. The result is an impressive repository of information and examples pertaining to Natural. This is Simply Natural. It is a Library of Examples and a series of lectures. It is a replacement for both Natural's own Help Facilities and many of the Natural Manuals. It can be used online as a greatly enhanced Help Facility and offline as a greatly expanded Reference Tool. It is the ideal "companion" for a Natural programmer; especially when they are working online.

Unlike manuals, Simply Natural will be a dynamic reference facility. It will be continually expanded and enhanced. The first release of Simply Natural is devoted solely to Natural statements. In short order we will be adding information of System Variables, System Functions, Natural Editors, Terminal (Monitor) Commands, and Language "amenities" (e.g. the Debugger, the Recorder). Simply Natural will also be continually enhanced as Natural itself evolves. Writeups of new features, for example the new length limits of one billion (yes, Billion) bytes for Alpha and Binary formats in Version 4.1, will contain "warnings" regarding which versions support the new facility being discussed.

Original Format

Consider the SORT command. Simply Natural has the syntax for the command, no different than the existing Help Facility or the Reference Manual. Then Simply Natural has over twenty screens of "lecture" on SORT. This has no counterpart anywhere else. In addition to the "lecture", SN has programs. Scattered through the the lecture you will find commentary like:

The ACCEPT/REJECT command plays a special role within the context of SORT. This is shown in the following program:

************
** SORT14 **
************


Place your cursor anywhere within (or on the border) the asterisked box, press a PF key (assignable and modifiable), and you find yourself looking at the fully annotated program SORT14. In the future I hope to expand this HTML like interface. One other important feature of Simply Natural that was noted above; it has considerable "inter command" discussion. The SORT text contains not only a discussion of ACCEPT/REJECT, it includes discussions about ESCAPE, AT END/START OF DATA, AT BREAK, and System Functions. No need to learn/install another front end. Simply Natural's interface is virtually identical to Natural's own Help Menus.

Web Browser Format

Shortly after Simply Natural was out in Beta, several recommendations were made regarding the availability of a Browser version. After the production release of Simply Natural, I began to "play" with different Browser interfaces.
A Demo of Simply Natural's Browser front end will give you an understanding of the new browser front end, and will also demonstrate the depth of information available in Simply Natural.

Simply Natural is available

I would like to thank the Beta sites for Simply Natural for their efforts in helping "shape" Simply Natural. They made many valuable suggestions, most of which were implemented in the release version, others of which will be added in the future.

All sites receive both formats mentioned above; the original format, which is written entirely in Natural, and the Web Browser format.

Simply Natural is available for $ 3,800 for a single site license (single versus multiple is based on the number of Natural Licenses you have). If you have an Enterprise License for Natural, the Simply Natural Enterprise License is $ 22,000. Maintenance is 15% per year of your original license fee (you are "protected" from possible future price increases; your maintenance fee will not increase).

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