McBride Software Package
Programming Concepts POS/370
McBride Software Package
The choice of language for the application must be carefully made. There are many things that have to be considered before a language is chosen. If the wrong language is chosen it can make the application non-supportable or even costly to support or even change. Several criteria must first be chosen to choose a language that will be appropriate for the system and application to be written in.
To begin with the language chosen should be independent of any particular hardware or system. If the language is tied to the hardware or system then it will limit the number of systems that the application can be used on. In addition any hardware and software options as well as future upgrades will be greatly limited.
The language for the application should also support the development, operation, maintenance of the software. To do this it must discourage poor practices while supporting any maintenance activities. A language that does not support this can extend debugging and development times. It can also cause poor coding characteristics that can make testing of the software and maintenance more time consuming and costly.
Another criterion for the choosing of a language is that it must support the required level of system reliability. If the systems reliability is compromised it will not perform as expected and become more costly to maintain across the life of the system.
The language chosen should also have a compiler that is current. A compiler that is outdated can be difficult to use and inferior to current versions. The outdated compilers produce substandard code that is difficult to use and maintain. Many key features of the chosen language may also be prohibited by the compiler.
When deciding whether to choose web or non-web based software one has to look at ease of use, support, maintenance, maintainability, and how easily the software can be...