As the author of a "practical" NL data base q u e r y system, one of the suggested topics for this panel is of p a r t i c u l a r interest to me. The issue of what hurdles remain before NL systems become practical strikes p a r t i c u l a r y close to home. %s someone with a more pragmatic view of NL processing, my feeling is, not surprisingly, that we already have the capability to construct practical ~:L systems.