ISHS Acta Horticulturae 566: II International Symposium on Application of Modelling as an Innovative Technology in the Agri-Food Chain; MODEL-IT
A WINDOWS INTERFACE FOR NUMERICAL MODELLING SOFTWARE |
| Authors: | Q.T. Pham, D.H. Le |
| Keywords: | graphical interface, Windows, Delphi, scientific computing |
| Abstract:
Users of numerical modelling software need to enter data of various types: text (strings), numbers (real of integer), yes/no data, records, lists and tables of numbers and other entities. There must be default values and acceptable ranges for the inputs. Users need to look at and edit tables in a convenient format, do quick graphs, or export them to spreadsheets or word processing for data analysis and reporting. They need context-sensitive help. The design and implementation of such an interface is often much more time consuming than the writing of the numerical part of the software. It is inefficient to have to repeat this work for every program, and therefore a standard interface library has been written in the Delphi language. The graphical interface (conceptually and visually a notepad of one or more pages, each containing several input boxes) is created by a series of calls to procedures (subroutines) without recourse to graphical programming. Thus, a single call creates the “notepad” and specifies the help file, another will add a page to the notepad, another will create an input box for a number, list or table, with associated question, etc. A complex error-free interface can be produced within minutes, leaving the scientific programmer to concentrate on the numerical content of the software. An example of a complex simulation program involving hundreds of inputs is given. | |
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