What are ADABAS and Natural?
ADABAS stands for “adaptable database system.” It was launched in 1971 by Software AG using an inverted index architecture and is thus a nonrelational database system. The system was known for its speed and reliability outliving many of its contemporaries (rival inverted index DBMS Datacom eventually transitioned to a relational architecture.
In 1979 Software AG developed a fourth generation (4GL) application development platform for the ADABAS ecosystem called Natural. Applications utilizing ADABAS as a database are, therefore, often built using Natural. Natural supports both procedural and event-driven programming.