Systems & Methods
WIMOVAC was written in Microsoft Visual Basic (v. 2.0/3.0) an event driven,
pseudo-object orientated and visual programming language which provided the user interface
design component necessary for our specification. Although Visual Basic has similarities
to earlier versions of BASIC, such as Microsoft Quickbasic 4.5 or the Microsoft BASIC
Professional Development Kit 7.0 in its use of variables, constants and intrinsic
functions. However Visual Basic adds a higher degree of modularity and code structure as
well as introducing a number software tools, called custom controls, for the rapid
development of Windows 3.1 programs.
Visual Basic gives most of the flexibility and discipline of other structured
languages, such as PASCAL, C and C++, but allows the rapid development and prototyping of
visual control elements. It is these visual control elements which are essential to
providing non-computer expert access to the models in WIMOVAC.
In its native form Visual Basic, is an interpreted language which makes program
development and testing a faster process than with traditional compiled languages. For
distribution purposes to end users the interpreted source code (pseudo-p code) can be
simply compiled however, to form a stand alone executable program (WIMOVAC.EXE) compatible
with the Windows environment and which may be run from the Windows desktop or program
manager in the usual manner. A number of commercial custom controls are available for
Visual Basic which extend standard functionality by providing simplified access to complex
facilities such as graphing, spreadsheet style data handling and customised user interface
components. WIMOVAC makes use of a number of these controls to extend automatic graphing,
printing, clipboard and data handling facilities to the user. In addition WIMOVAC makes
use of Windows object linking and embedding technology (OLE) for the transfer of
simulation results directly from WIMOVAC to other Windows based application for
sophisticated analysis, manipulation and printing using such dedicated packages.
WIMOVAC uses the Microsoft Help Compiler (version 3.1.1) to incorporate the on-line
context sensitive hyper-help system containing segmented hyper graphics, equations,
bitmaped images and scaleable Windows metafile images.
The WIMOVAC help file has been constructed using a word processor WFW (Microsoft Word
for Windows v6.01). WFW is used to create rich text files (RTF) containing the textual
information and inserted graphics which the help compiler then builds into a help file
format compatible with the help file manager and display system built into Windows 3.1 and
related operating systems. The advantage of using the word processor route is that expert
scientists may contribute without the need for any programming skills. A further advantage
offered by preparing an on-line help system in this manner is that the word processed help
file may be used, to form the basis of a printed manual or hardcopy documentation of the
modelling system.
