IBM Informix-4GL

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Informix-4GL is a 4GL programming language developed by Informix during the mid-1980s. It includes embedded SQL, a report writer language, a form language, and a limited set of imperative capabilities (functions, if and while statements, etc.).

The Informix-4GL project was started in 1985, with Chris Maloney as chief architect. Roy Harrington was in charge of the related Informix Turbo engine. There were several flavors of Informix-4GL produced, including the discontinued "New Era", which supported object-oriented programming.

Despite its age, Informix-4GL is still widely used to develop business applications, and a sizable market exists around it due to its popularity. Several companies produced clone versions with or without extended functionality, such as graphical user interfaces and integrated development environments, some examples being 4JS and Querix. A company in Latin America built a translator to the Java programming language. There is even a free GPL'ed version called Aubit-4GL.

[edit] Stand-alone application

# hello.4gl a makefile is needed to compile and run this.
MAIN
  DEFINE
    message_text char(500)

  LET message_text = "hello world"
  DISPLAY message_text

  EXIT PROGRAM(1)
END MAIN

Informix-4GL is now property of IBM.