Overview

Especially well-suited for large-scale, database-intensive business applications, Genero Business Development Language (BDL) is a reliable, easy-to-learn high-level programming language.

BDL allows application developers to:

  • express business logic in a clear yet powerful syntax
  • use SQL statements for database access to any of the supported databases
  • localize your application to follow a specific language or cultural rules
  • define user interfaces in an abstract, platform-independent manner
  • define Presentation Styles to customize and standardize the appearance of the interface
  • manipulate the user interface at runtime, as a tree of objects

The separation of business logic, user interface, and deployment provides maximum flexibility.

  • The business logic is written in text files (.4gl source code modules) that interact with separate form files defining the user interface.
  • Actions defined in the business logic are tied to action views (buttons, menu items, toolbar icons) in the form definition files, and respond to user interaction statements in the source code.
  • Compiling a form definition file translates it into XML, which is used to display the user interface to various Genero clients running on different platforms.

You can write once, deploy anywhere - one production release supports all major versions of UNIX™, Linux™, Windows®, and macOS™.