What is the best development tool for engineering software

"Ohiomoba Caxton" <ohio_olumide@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Hello!
>Please I'm a final year student of chemical engineering. I'm working on
a
>final year project concerned with the development of a process simulation
>software.
>
>My problem is that, to choose a suitable platform with which to develop
this
>software, i need to critique all possible development platforms (VB 6.0,
>VC++, Java, Delphi etc.)
>
>Where can I get a critique of all visual programming languages or better
>still a comparism of visual programming languages?, Which rapid application
>development tool is in your opinion best suited for engineering applications.
>
>I'll be very grateful if i get a speedy reply to my question.
>
>Yours Faithfully,
>Ohiomoba caxton.
>

I also work with Process Control and have to do this type of research periodically
for proposals. Your best bet for 'higher-level' comparison's and critiques
is to use the search engines for Magazines, Trade Journals, and Associate
Journal Articles (Google being on of the best). Books and pre-release White
Papers tend to become outdated quickly.

Also if I may humbly suggest: You need to narrow your process down to a few
specific types of processes, retort, batch, bomb, etc.. If you don't you
will soon find yourself in the middle of multiple, multi-variant analyses
which is a quick road to maddness. <g>

The other problem, is contrary to what you are probably being told in school;
Process control software choices are far more affected by hardware, instrumentation,
controls (e.g. polled Galil vs PLC), counters, etc., and real-time service
levels needs, than by software "features". Add these elements to your "narrowed
process view".

For example, even VB will work with a 'vat' that has ramp times of 10 and
30 minutes. However, any one that picks Java with an Xlib based GUI for an
envelope with < 1 second steps, deserves the inevitable plant destruction
and lawsuits that will follow. <g>

-ralph