New ABL users will find essential material in every chapter. You should read the introductory chapters on structured error handling even if traditional error handling seems like what you need right now. While structured error handling is an object-oriented feature set, it provides powerful, easy-to-learn, and easy-to-program functionality for any ABL application. You do not have to commit to larger object-oriented design patterns to take advantage of structured error handling.
To better understand the material in this manual, you should be familiar with the following ABL topics:
Procedure files (.p), internal procedures, and user-defined functions
Blocks and block properties
Transactions
Built-in system objects, attributes, and methods
OpenEdge Getting Started: ABL Essentials is your best resource for learning about these topics. In particular, the chapters on transactions demonstrate the relationship between transactions, blocks, block properties, and default error handling.
Procedure files (.p), internal procedures, and user-defined functions