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Course DEV-15A/B. VFP in Action Case Study/Demonstration Brian Jones DPRA, Inc. Who Am I. Brian Jones Director, Information Systems DPRA, Inc. Oak Ridge, Tennessee bjones@dpra.com or jonesbk@ornl.gov. Background. DoD creates United States Transportation Command
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Course DEV-15A/B VFP in Action Case Study/Demonstration Brian Jones DPRA, Inc.
Who Am I • Brian Jones • Director, Information Systems • DPRA, Inc. • Oak Ridge, Tennessee • bjones@dpra.com or jonesbk@ornl.gov
Background • DoD creates United States Transportation Command • manager for all DoD transportation • develop transportation plans for U.S. National Defense Plans • all modes of transportation: air, land, and sea • Wargame • evaluate command & control procedures • test transportation analysis software
Findings • Software systems too complex • Models too aggregate • Run by technicians v. planners • Not responsive to real-time changes
Paradigm Shift • From: • FORTRAN, Ada, LISP • mainframes • UNIX workstations/servers • cumbersome (operated by technicians) • expensive
Paradigm Shift • To: • PC platform • mainstream app. development languages • GUIs • designed for planners (human factors, reduced complexity) • bring transportation analysis into the desktop metaphor
JFASTJoint Flow and Analysis System for Transportation • Began in late 1989 • First prototype in three months • First real-world: Desert Shield (1990) • Development cost cut by approx. ten times
Input • Requirements data--items to move: people, trucks, supplies… 1-2M records • Assets: Aircraft, ships, and ports • Assets characteristics over time • Highway, rail, sea, and air network data
Output • Schedules and delivery dates • Asset utilization profiles • Reports/Graphs • Animations • Briefing slides • Approx. 200M output data per analysis
Tools UsedEvolving Solution • 1989--FoxBase, QuickBASIC, C, FORTRAN (DOS) • FoxPro, C, FORTRAN (DOS) • FPW, C, VB (Windows/WFW) • Present: VFP, C++, C, J++ (WindowsNT)
Why VFP? • Data-centric language/development environment (probably most important) • Local and remote data • Manage large amounts of data • DBCs and free tables allow for extremely flexible designs • Excellent RAD tool
Why VFP? • Performance • Performance • Performance