Case study on selecting an environment for software development

To explore the various issues and options surrounding software development, the author has selected a specific Safeguards Systems Group (NIS-7) project to serve as a case study. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and any reference to {open_quotes}we{close_quotes} or {open_quotes}our{close_quotes} refers to this single author. The goal of the selected project is to produce software that can accurately analyze data from sensors in tanks containing solutions of nuclear material (solution monitoring). This project focuses on data from Japanese reprocessing facilities. The software is to be used by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors back at headquarters in Vienna after obtaining data from a site. I feel that the ideas presented in this paper may be applicable to numerous software developers whose project requirements are similar to those for this project. Two considerations for developing software for use by others are discussed. (1) What software tools should be used during the development process? (2) What is the most effective way of distributing the software and documentation? The requirements for the software environment and distribution of software and documentation include the following: portability; cross-platform compatibility; graphical user interface and builder, creating modular/reusable software components; generic libraries; environment should facilitate development of solutions to large real-world problems; no special privileges are necessary to access the software and documentation; software should be visible to a large number of people; documentation should be in a format that everyone can read and should support equations and graphics; transmission of software and documentation should be hands-off