Front-end software

The potential use of nomenclature translation therefore is as an interface to a variety of structure-based information systems, and we wish now to address the issue of software interfacing. This is necessary in order to provide HUNT as a front-end software module for other existing and future structure-based systems. 

STN Express, a front-end software package for searching databases on STN... 

Anyone with access to the Web can use STN Easy without any knowledge of databases or search commands and without any training. There is no need to install any special front-end software a WWW browser supporting HTML 2.0 with tables and forms is sufficient (recommended are Netscape Navigator 2.0 and above, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0 and above). However, STN Easy, being a commercial service, requires a login ID. 

STN Express an advanced telecommunication/front-end software package to provide streamlined searching of databases on STN it helps save time and on-line costs (see STN Express A Professional Retrieval Software for Successful On-line Searches). 

Notice that the title of this presentation refers not to the standard interface but to a standard interface. Many software packages have been introduced, and more are appearing continually, but no standard has yet been accepted. For a standard software for public, corporate, and personal files to be accepted, certain bridges must have been built. These will require not only cooperation but also commitment, and the relationship between the online data base vendors and front-end software developers will be crucial for success. 

Bridges must be built only a bridge between the online vendor and the front-end software developer can assure long-term compatibility. Bridge in this case means a commitment, by both parties, to change only in ways that maintain compatibility between vendor software and the front-end software. Of course, this commitment... 

Hardware environments are another challenge to compatibility, especially since the most obvious choice can be risky. When we developed STN Express it was obvious that this software should be compatible with the IBM PC. But since then, the Macintosh has become increasingly popular. There are fads and fashions in the computer market just as in other areas. Today, front-end software should work not only with the IBM and Apple PCs but also with the DEC, Commodore, and NEC, to name a few. Preferences vary over time and also by country. We have seen that the Commodore is rather popular in Germany and the NEC seems to dominate the Japanese market. Those brands are virtually unknown in the United States, while the IBM PC is relatively unfamiliar in Japan. STN Express currently works with MS-DOS the standard interface should also work with, at least, the UNIX and Macintosh operating systems. Perhaps more will be necessary in the future. 

Images, the search and retrieval expression of pictures, present a challenge because of the sheer number of bits involved in producing these. Sending pictures across VANs is very expensive and very slow, even though the data are compacted. But if compacted, the data must then be uncompacted at the user s site, and this requires another level of compatibility between the front-end software and the applications software of the public or corporate search system. 

User compatibility is at least as important as hardware and software compatibility. In an international community, users differ according to computer expertise, native tongue, and subject speciality, to name just three crucial aspects. Failure to account for any of these can make the front-end software less than fully functional for a given user. 

Cost Versus Price. Finally, cost versus price is a special difficulty in the software field. The complexity of the front-end software is a major factor in the cost, in that more complex software needs to be more highly priced. It takes more work and expertise to develop and this makes it more useful. But, ironically, this complexity may not be apparent to the user especially in the best designed and most serviceable software By analogy, consider that when a system of the human body works well, you tend not to notice it. STN Express software is actually quite complicated programs that appear simple in their execution may have cost the developer months of programming, many thousands of lines of code, and hours of design and prototyping. And this must have some effect on the price. 

The GEMM software on the ST-100 is not a stand-alone package, and it requires a front-end simulation software package that runs on the host to provide data and to send command requests. It was designed and written with CHARMM (Chemistry at HARvard Macro-molecular Mechanics) (14) as the primary front-end, but additional software packages, such as AMBER (15), have subsequently been modified to drive GEMM. 

The current implementation is best with CHARMM as a front-end, though other software packages have been modified to drive GEMM. 

Overall, most of the requirements for a process spectrometer/analyzer are straightforward to implement, but they do require attention at the design level. Another important area, which is FTIR specific, is the user interface and the need to provide for industry standard data communications. Standard software packages do exist for process instrumentation. For prototype development, and even for the front-end interface in a stand-alone mode of operation, software products, such as National Instraments Lab View and the Mathworks MatLab, are also important instrumentation development tools. Note that National Instruments also provides important computer-based electronics and hardware that meet most of the computer interfacing, and system control and communications needs for modem instrumentation. For practical installations, a product known... 

A typical operating system is Windows 2000 or XP, although Linux is increasing in use. The operating system snpports other software components required for the application to operate inclnding a database, e.g., Oracle, and a front-end application to manage the operator interface, e.g., written in VB or Access. Other code, for example code to control instrumentation, motors or drives, may be cnstom written or standard code modules. 

Desktop GAMP (2001) Represents the end user workstation and local software environment. Normally provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) front-end menu providing users with access to required applications. Many desktop environments can be reconfigured by the end user. 

Some programs in the compound database management arena are compared in Figure 14. A software product that has controlled the lion s share of this market is MACCS." 4o CJACS mentions of REACCS, i which is a program for managing reaction databases are also plotted. ISIS, a recent front-end for accessing MACCS databases from desktop workstations in a distributed com-... 

Copies of the TNO peroxide test databases have been provided to E27.07 and the new versions of CHETAH are expected to contain an extensive database as well as pattern-recognition techniques for estimating the hazard of new materials. The CHETAH software will continue to rely on bond energy data and group contribution calculations to estimate energy release potential. Hopefully, the new versions will also incorporate natural language expert system-type front ends so that the CHETAH program(s) will see expanded use in both analytical and tutorial modes. Copies of the LEILA (8) dissertation have also been provided to E27.07 as an example of an expert system approach to selection and use of appropriate theories and computational methods for the solution of problems in chemical kinetics. 

The fact that a software linear phase correction is successful in correcting for the time origin in solution NMR is partly accidental. The exponential function which occurs in the majority of solution NMR FID s retains the same functional form when its front end is truncated. This means that when... 

Presented here is a new open source software framework for doing phase equilibria calculations. The framework consists of two components the HCToolkit (a set of Perl classes that implement EOS calculations and flash calculations) and the EOSInterface (an ActiveX/MS Excel front end to the HCToolkit). Several calculations are also shown that demonstrate the flexibility of... 

GUI Graphical user interface. Refers to software front ends that rely on pictures and icons to direct the interaction of users with the application. 

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