Introduction to ENFORM

Summary of ENFORM Features
Overview of ENFORM
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Host Language Interface Programs written in COBOL, TAL, or FORTRAN can use ENFORM to retrieve
information from the database by saving compiled queries in a file and using
ENFORM procedures to pass the queries to the query processor host language
interface. Records are then returned from the query processor to the program (Figure
1-8). Application development time and program maintenance can be reduced using
this approach because:
Changes to a physical file or key in the database do not require any changes to the
host language program.
The query processor selects the access strategy for a complex ENFORM program.
Record transformations are easier to express in ENFORM than in most other
languages—you simply identify the before and after views of the records, not the
steps required to do the transformations.
See the ENFORM Reference Manual for more details on this subject.
Figure 1-8. Generating Compiled Queries
Database
Dictionary
Compiler/
Report Writer
Compiled
Query
HLI
COBOL
FORTRAN
TAL
Query
Processor
Reports
FIND