Getting Involved 

When you program with ABAP on the application server, you profit from a range of services, which in other languages would have to be programmed manually with a great amount of effort. Many of these services have resulted from the fact that the SAP NW Application Server is the outcome of a long development period. You are thus benefiting from the experience of many programmers, whose suggestions for improvement are implemented in the server today.

The following provides you with an overview of the origins of ABAP, its infrastructure, and the underlying server architecture. You are thus provided with information introducing you to ABAP and its infrastructure.

If you are used to languages like C or Java, some aspects of programming with ABAP will at first appear unfamiliar, some will seem unusual, and some may even appear impractical. If you use the possibilities of the language effectively, you will soon see that many aspects of business programming can be done with ABAP very simply. In this language, much has already been anticipated and created.