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Free Software Foundation) and indicated that it takes approximately 20 to 30 seconds to recompile <br />TERRA. CADSWES uses embedded SQL to call an ORACLE database. They rewrote the public <br />XMgr <br />domain in Galaxy to use as the plotting tool. Steve Wehrend indicated that up to 8 users may <br />be developing using Galaxy at any time. <br />Motif-based GUI Builders <br />Motif-based GUI builders create Motif code that can be compiled using the Motif libraries supplied <br />by hardware vendors. The main features of such builders are that they have an in-depth knowledge <br />of Motif and therefore have many features that can be used to develop complex full-featured GUIs. <br />Because the builders do not need to concentrate on portability outside of Motif, they typically rely on <br />Motif to define the structure of code, although some products do rely on libraries of high-level <br />routines to define groups of Motif graphical components. <br />The cost of Motif-based GUI builders varies, but $5,000 to $10,000 per development license is <br />typical. The consultant has not investigated these products in great detail for the CRDSS because of <br />the State's indication that portable GUIs are an important issue and because the consultant plans to <br />rely on a great deal of existing Motif code during development. <br />Overall Evaluation <br />The consultant feels that the price of Galaxy, its complexity (documentation is several thousand <br />pages), and architecture make Galaxy a solution that is not cost-effective for the CRDSS. The <br />consultant has concerns that the Galaxy product will not be well-supported for SGI machines and <br />that the very nature of the product is not maintainable in a way that is conducive of a large <br />development effort. This is because Galaxy does not use the native graphics environment but <br />emulates the graphics environment by rewriting it. This effort requires a great deal of effort and <br />therefore has more room for errors and delays in updates. The consultant is also concerned about the <br />large executable size for Gala xy applications (TERRA is 6MB) in that such executables will <br />inevitably cause problems on PCs. The consultant is also concerned about the dependence of <br />development efforts on the product. Granted, Galaxy promotes portability; however, its architecture <br />tends to cause all development to be channeled into Galaxy. Consequently, all developers would be <br />required to use Galaxy and costs for training and licenses may be prohibitive. Also, the need to use <br />the native graphics environment for some applications (e.g., calls to GRASS) limits the openness of <br />Galaxy. It appears that CADSWES has devoted a great deal of time recoding existing applications <br />using Galaxy. This is not an option within the budget of the CRDSS. <br />The consultant feels that the cost of XVT, coupled with its use of the native environment and its <br />straightforward approach to structuring GUIs, will provide the most cost-effective environment for <br />development of new GUI code that needs to be portable, especially where code is to be ported to the <br />PC environment. <br />Because a great deal of useful existing Motif code has been developed by the consultant team and <br />exists in the public domain, the consultant also recommends using Motif for GUI development where <br />existing Motif code can be implemented. It is anticipated that most Motif development will be <br />concentrated around the MODSIM and consumptive use models. <br />The use of XVT for new enhancements will be considered but may not be appropriate in all cases. <br />For example, the MODSIM interface is already coded in Motif and would require recoding using a <br />7 <br />A275 07.28.94 1.05-15 Malers <br />