Book excerpt: Please see the new edition: The Mumps Programming Language for a revised and hopefully improved edition! An introduction to the open source Mumps/II language - an enhanced version of legacy Mumps. Mumps/II is a simple, easily learned, powerful database and string manipulation language which is ideal for both desktop and server applications. Mumps/II features: A hierarchical and multi-dimensional database facility; Flexible and powerful pattern matching and string manipulation facilities; Relational database access; Advanced text processing support; Shell scripting; Translation to, and compatibility with, C++.