Worldwide Seminar Announcement

Sometimes I wish I had a flair for marketing. This seminar offering cries out for a really good marketing person. Not being such, I will merely give you the basics.

Andreas Schuetz (from Software AG’s Natural Development team in Darmstadt) and I will be doing a series of one week presentations on the internals (mainly Andreas) and the externals (programming; mainly me) of Natural 3 and Natural 4. I did come up with the somewhat obvious “Mr. Internals and Mr. Externals”; but everyone who I tried this out on frowned (except for one person who laughed). “Natural: Inside and Outside” did not do much better.

So, in the absence of a “catchy title”, let me tell you a bit about the class. It will actually be two classes, not one. The first class, two days in length, will mainly address Natural Internals. The second class, three days in length, will mainly address Natural Programming considerations. You may register for either, or both, classes. Note the use of the word “mainly”. If someone asks a question in the internals class that mainly has to do with programming, well, off I go on a tangent. If someone asks a buffer question while I am discussing programming, Andreas will chime in. Both of us will be in class all five days; and will be available for questions all five days at coffee breaks, lunch breaks, and for those really tough questions, we can often be found after class enjoying local wine or beer.

What?

If you look at the Version 4 Planning Guide or Release Notes, you will find lists of the many enhancements that will a part of Natural 4. What you will not find, but will be presented in this seminar, is what to do with these enhancements. It is one thing to know that the Alpha and Binary length restrictions of 253 and 126 respectively, have been lifted to 1 Gig, it is another to know what old code should be changed to take advantage of the new limits, and what new code should be written different than would be the case with the old limits.

There is a new utility called SYSOBJH which will be replacing SYSTRANS and SYSUNLD. Don’t panic, they will not go away tomorrow, but it has been announced that they will disappear in a subsequent (Version 5?) release. Better to learn how to use SYSOBJH now.

There are new statements in Version 4, and enhancements to many others. There will be examples showing how to use the new facilities, and discussions about whether existing code should be changed to take advantage of the new facilities.

There will be performance discussions that will pertain to both Version 3 and Version 4. It is amazing how simple programming “lapses” (errors is too harsh a word) can result in significant performance problems. We will show you many ways to tune your existing systems and avoid problems in future systems.

Why?

Natural 4 has arrived. If it is not yet installed in your shop, it will be soon. There is a long list of new features and facilities that were added for Natural 4.1 and Natural 4.2 (both of which are now released). The features will alter the way you will want to structure your programs, and will provide simple ways to improve existing code.
Did I mention both Andreas and I will devote time to issues related to performance? We have helped reduce runtimes in many shops. Why not be a "hero" in your shop by returning with information to dramatically improve performance?

Between Andreas & I, we have over fifty years experience with Natural. More importantly, we both have worked with Natural 4 since before the official release. So you not only get the benefit of our extensive Natural experience, you hear first hand about the Natural 4 facilities from people who have been working with the new releases.

If all that is not enough, both Andreas and I are probably well known to you. We have given presentations at all the Boston Natural conferences, most of the National and International Software AG conferences, and many regional user group meetings.

Who?

There will be a definite overlap between the target audiences for the two classes. The internals class will mainly be of interest to Natural Administrators, DBAs, Systems Programmers, and Senior Natural Developers. The programming class, while of primary interest to application programmers, will also be of interest to Senior Natural Developers and DBA’s who have the responsibilities of answering Natural questions and doing high level design of Natural systems.

We have provided a fifteen percent discount to encourage people whose responsibilities span the range discussed above, to participate in both sessions.

When & Where?

The 2008 seminar series is being planned now. Check back at this site regularly for Dates, cities, and venues. If you need really up to the minute information, contact us as shown below: