# Episode 171 - What Is a 4GL? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/advent-of-computing-497186/episode-171-what-is-a-4gl Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/advent-of-computing-497186/episode-171-what-is-a-4gl.md Podcast: [Advent of Computing](https://stenobird.com/podcast/advent-of-computing-497186) Published: 2025-11-24T00:43:00+00:00 Episode link: https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/episode-171-what-is-a-4gl Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/adventofcomputing/ep171_4gl.mp3?dest-id=1206722 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/advent-of-computing-497186/episodes/episode-171-what-is-a-4gl Duration seconds: 3282 ## Resource Last episode I said that Fourth Generation Languages were a topic for another time. Well... this counts as another time. Today we are trying to figure out what exactly makes a language 4th Generation. Along the way we will see why the term bugs me so much, why 4GLs seem so strange, and how a programmer can increase their productivity by 2,000% (some restrictions apply). ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/advent-of-computing-497186/episodes/episode-171-what-is-a-4gl/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/advent-of-computing-497186/episode-171-what-is-a-4gl.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.