Programming the Diagnosics Package

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To program the diagnostics package, you have to consider the characteristics of the skills being taught and the setting, or context, in which the skills are performed. And you must have in mind what you wish to accomplish: study, experiment, or train.

You also have to consider the computer to be used: its capabilities and limitations. It might be a stand-alone computer or a network of computers. It could mean the difference between traditional, sequential programming, and parallel programming. Also, you need a program development system that lets you construct the operations.

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Stand-alone systems are easier, but still require a representation of the skills setting. You must analyze complex interactions, construct formulas, and write programs. But the computer on which the training is to be conducted is typically a known commodity.

For Internet training, however, you have to contend with many different kinds of computers, browsers, and operating systems. And there will always be an unknown processing system waiting in the wings. This complicates matters but can be handled by cross-platform languages, like Java, which let local browsers compile and interpret text-based, uncompiled programs -- given the interface that interprets it.

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Although the Internet is still undergoing change and boundaries are still fluid -- so that what may be part of an applications program today may later be incorporated into the network itself -- it's still important to distinguish between:

1. Programming that develops an operating system or a platform for operations -- say as a basic commercial transaction system.
2. Programs written to conduct studies or training on that platform -- like studying the operations of a bank or training its employees.

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On the Internet, the operating system has to ensure that transactions succeed, irrespective of the type of transaction taking place on it and the computers between which the transactions are being performed. Whether the actions involve products, services, or money, the operating system has to make certain they are carried out successfully. Developers have to deal with issues like portability, system integrity, security, scalability, persistence, or message queuing. Careful distributed processing is needed.

Java and Visual Basic are among the programming tools used in the effort, but HTML is ever present. In fact, script programs, written in languages like JavaScript and VBScript, which are smaller versions of Java and Visual Basic languages, respectively, have been developed for Web pages developed using HTML.

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