Mobile Geoengineering: Extending the office to the field

The Internet. In and of itself, the Internetlintranet paradigm remains the most significant computing advancement since the introduction of the personal computer. It is the nervous system that makes remote field computing possible and affordable for the future, Without TCP/lP, the World Wide Web, HTML and all the other standardized technologies spawned, empowered and embraced by the Internet, mobile computing would still be struggling along as a variety of weak, competing, proprietary, closed systems. With the standardization provided by the Internet, developers can focus on delivering solutions instead of building the infrastructure.

Java is without a doubt the best answer for developing client-side mobile geoengineering applications. Java can be used on thin clients (on-line mobile applications) in the form of applets or Web-based applications, or it can be employed as a Web-enabled geoengineering environment for off-line mobile solutions. The objective will be to develop and test applications quickly and deploy them in a manner that requires minimal training or system maintenance. It was built from the ground up, to solve the problems inherent in and unique to mobile computing. Some of the big advantages of Java include:

Write Once Run Anywhere. Because mobile devices are still evolving, building applications that can run on many different platforms with the same source code has the advantage of not only simplifying the development process across multiple platforms, but also preserving much of the development investment as new, improved platforms come to market. Consequently, companies can build field applications for existing mobile devices and operating systems and be assured that, with little additional effort, they can port these applications to future devices. Java will allow applications to evolve with the hardware, without the burden of backward compatibility to legacy systems.
Thin Client Support. Java was originally developed for the embedded processors in appliances; therefore, its design is as suitable for mobile devices as it is for the Internet applications that have driven its development for the last three years. With a small footprint, object-oriented architecture, and strong acceptance in Internet applications, Java will continue to entrench itself as the leading technology for mobile, thin-client applications.
Ease of developing forms-based applications. One of the biggest advantages of Java is its simplicity and the ease with which applications can be developed. Its development environment literally cuts the development effort by as much as a factor of 10. In addition, many forms-based templates have been created that can be used for rapid development of custom database-driven forms applications. These templates are especially exciting for mobile geoengineering applications because forms are an integral part of most solutions.

Windows and Windows CE. The choice of operating system to use is really dependent on the device chosen, but it is good to understand the inherent limitations of the operating systems so that one chooses the proper device. For thick-client applications, Windows 95/98/NT will clearly be the OS of choice. All software applications run on these platiorms.

Microsoft has made strong inroads into the handheld/small device market with Windows CE. Current Windows CE devices have inherent limitations of relatively small amounts of RAM, no disk, etc. that make it impossible to run true desktop applications on them. Whether it will remain a separate product or push the market toward Windows as the hardware matures is yet to be seen. It has the advantage of the same basic user interface as VVmdows, which is known by all and therefore is a familiar start for the first-time mobile geoengineer.

Although it is limited as a development environment, it is a suitable platform for Internet-based, thin-client applications. Important for its survival, CE supports Java. In addition, new technology is just being introduced where inexpensive, thin-client devices with large screens (13 inches) run Windows CE. With support of Java and the new large screen systems, CE will continue to evolve as an on-line mobile solution.

Other Micro-Operating Systems. Of course, there are other thin-client operating systems from which to choose, such as the PalmPilot, which has its own operating system and development environment. The PalmPilot has become tremendously popular, far outselling Windows CE devices. However, the Palm has a closed development environment. It does not support Java and has no intention of supporting it in the near future. 3Com has spent a great deal of time developing an environment that is highly optimized for small machines. This approach is fine for commercial applications built specifically for the PalmPilot, but presents a problem for developing lower-volume customized applications (or porting existing applications) to these devices.

In order for the PalmPilot to be used in the mobile geoengineering world, therefore, development of applications will have to be performed essentially from scratch—an expensive proposition. This type of development will be the case with any closed or non-standard environment. The extra cost in development and the shortened life span of applications will minimize their usefulness in the geoengineering market. They just are not worth the effort, cost or risk.