MUMPS DEMO FILES -------------------------------------------

This disk may be run directly from the floppy by typing:

A:
MUMPS

Alternatively, the files may be copied to a hard disk and run
by typing:

MUMPS
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What is thing called MUMPS ??!!

More than a childhood disease. MUMPS is a language processor
environment that combines all the functionallity of a programming
language, a multiuser operating system and a database into a
programming language. MUMPS is one of four ANSI standard
languages and has received FIPS (Federal Information Processing
Standard) approval in the U.S. MUMPS is multilingual and is now
available for computers from PCs to mainframes.

MUMPS .... catch the fever !!!

MUMPS is one of four current American National Standard Languages
( ANSI XII.I-84 ). Applications that conform to the MUMPS
Standard enable the developer and user of that application to
operate on any computer hardware that also supports the Standard.
Computers that support Standard MUMPS will run any application
that conforms to the standard WITHOUT ANY NEED FOR PORTING OR
OTHER CONVERSION. That is true for program files and DATA FILES
!!! As a result, MUMPS VARs do not feel that they are tied to any
particular brand of hardware.

Background

MUMPS ( Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming
System ) was first developed in 1966 at Massachusetts General
Hospital. MUMPS was designed to handle large textual medical
databases in a logical structure and is particularly suited for
applications requiring large, dynamic database, shared by
multiple users. Much of the information processing found in
medical applications involves the capturing, analyzing, storing
and retrieval of text string information.

MUMPS excels at providing quick response to spontaneous requests
typically required of transaction oriented information systems.
It is not a powerful batch processing language, nor is it strong
in handling "number-crunching" applications. However, studies
show that MUMPS significantly enhances programmer productivity
over other languages.

MUMPS is a powerful, yet simple multi-programming, multi-tasking
system that easily manipulates large amounts of textual data in
an efficient and rapid fashion.

The Language

MUMPS is a multi-purpose, interpreted or compiled, high level
programming language designed for interactive data management. It
is a symbolic language, meaning that it deals with the names of
objects, rather than specific addresses. The distinction between
what is "data" and what is a "program" is blurred in MUMPS, which
is how the data dictionary gets its power. In this sense, MUMPS
is closer to LISP than COBOL, BASIC FORTRAN or ADA. A MUMPS
system handles all of the interface between its users and the
logical devices of a computer system. As a result, MUMPS is often
thought to be an operating system even though modern
implementations of MUMPS on all but the smallest mini and
microcomputers use native operating systems for physical device
control and access to system resources. MUMPS has very strong
string handling and symbol manipulation characteristics as well
as a built in hierarchical database. MUMPS was specifically
designed to handle large textual databases in a logical
structure. This makes it both a powerful and flexible programming
language particularly suited for applications requiring large,
dynamic database, shared by multiple users.

Its string handling features and hierarchically structured
database suit it for medical, business and wordprocessing
applications where large, complex files must be designed,
constructed and maintained.

MUMPS has a full set of commands, functions and operators to
manipulate textual data. MUMPS is not a typed language, which
means that programmers do not have to explicitly declare the
characteristics of data before they use it. Everything is treated
as a variable-length character string. It has a literal and three
types of variables: the local variable, the global variable and
the special variable. There are seven types of operators:
Arithmetic Unary Operators, Arithmetic Binary Operators,
Arithmetic Relational Operators, String Binary Operators, String
Relational Operators, Logical Operators and Indirection. There
are 21 commands, a set of standard functions and a definition of
a syntax to provide extensions to the language. It combines the
functionality of what other computing environments call operating
systems, data communications monitors, linkage editors, database
management system, compilers, job control languages, and
debuggers into a single, high level interpretive language.

MUMPS is simple and easy to learn with powerful capabilities to
handle complex data management problems. Developing MUMPS
programs is made easy by the use of string subscripts and a
built-in operating system that includes a balanced multi-way tree
design for efficient disk storage and rapid data access. Studies
show that MUMPS significantly enhances programmer productivity
over other languages.

MUMPS Users' Groups

The MUMPS community has established users groups ( MUMPS Users
Group or MUG ) with offices in both U.S. and Europe and members
throughout the world. The users groups are very active in
developing and promoting the MUMPS language and language and
educating new and experienced MUMPS users on the use, care and
feeding of MUMPS programs and systems.