Tools and Techniques

Software Tools | Libraries

Software Tools

Metroviz was designed using a number of relatively straight-forward programs and tools to develop a system that met all of clients needs that included, ease of use and implementation, and especially maintenance. The software tools that were used and/or are supported were:

• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Access 2000, 2003
• Microsoft Excel 2000, 2002, 2003
• Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003

Libraries

In addition to the development in Microsoft .NET, additional libraries were used to supplement .NET's capabilities. They were chosen because of their free, open source licenses with sufficient online support if problems were ever to arise.

NHibernate

NHibernate was chosen for its ability to bridge the gap between Microsoft Access and Visual Basic objects. Although it began in the Java world, it was converted over to .NET and has a good amount of online support. Additionally, it is open source with no bottle necks or major requirements for further distribution. As long as NHibernate's copyright statement is included in the code the city of Pittsburgh is free from any legal liability.

NHibernate's Home Page

NPlot

NPlot was chosen for its ability to create graphs and charts from data. There is a good amount of documentation online about NPlot's functionality if needed in the future, and NPlot's development staff is very good at quickly turning around bug fixes that occur and are submitted. It is an open source library that is completely free and easily accessible online. As such, the city of Pittsburgh has no legal liability for use of distribution of the NPlot code.

NPlot's Home Page