Upper Water Column Data Visualization : Application Development Environment assessment This page last changed on Jan 28, 2010 by mccann. ### Application Development Environment assessment table
Development environment | OPeNDAP/NetCDF | SQL (CRUD) | SQL (ORM) | Numerical Methods | Visualization | Easy to learn | Freely available | Large user base | Support community
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Matlab | read & write |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Perl | write |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Python | read & write |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Java | read & write |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Ferret | read & write (grid only) |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
### Assessment criteria OPeNDAP/NetCDF: For write there needs to be a library available to create NetCDF files. For read there needs to be a capability (library or toolkit) to read both grid and structure DAPs. SQL (CRUD): Ability to perform Create, Read, Update, Delete operations in a relational database. SQL (ORM): The language as libraries to permit Object Relational Mapping, which makes it easier to use relational data in an object oriented environment. Numerical methods: Common numerical methods are available such as those found in the Numerical Recipes book. Visualization: Capability to produce common scientific graphics (multi-axis XY plots, histograms, scatter plots, color-filled contour plots, vector time series plots, geographic plots, etc.) Easy to learn: This is rather subjective, but a discriminating parameter is whether professional software engineering skills are required, or if the language can be "picked up" by someone with scientific technical skills. Freely available: Yes, this means free - i.e. you don't have to pay for a license. Large user base: This means that more than perhaps 100 people use it from around the world. Support community: Is there a user group where you can post questions and get timely answers back.

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