Software development archive

Prior to designing and building websites, I was a freelance software developer writing systems for clients for distribution on CD-ROM. This was when I learned to listen to clients and design systems that responded to the detailed requirements of their projects.

The following applications are software projects (not website projects) that demonstrate some of these qualities. Written in either VB.NET or ToolBook Asymetrix/Click2Learn ToolBook Developer (the first Windows-based multimedia software authoring system) they are - with one exception - front-ends to databases. The majority of them are eLearning or course-management applications. I was an early advocate of the separation of code, content and design, pushing these early development tools to store all their data (and some of their configuration options) in external databases which could - if desired - be re-purposed for different systems. At the time that was a nascent trend that has since grown into the maturity that we now see everywhere on the internet.

These projects taught me the need for precision and thoroughness. Programs needed to work on a huge range of devices and in a variety of diverse situations. Robust error-reporting procedures were as important as perfecting the random seeding of a three-dimensional array or the bi-directional highlighting of a multi-colour product-to-property menu system!

Welcome to the pre-internet museum!

Management and Reporting System

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor, GisburneDB ActiveX, MS Access

Receives FTPed results databases from students running the Aviation Theory Revision Aid/Student Course Management System applications, described above. A font-line curriculum-support tool, enabling tutors to assess student progress and fine-tune support. Presents per-test and per-question analysis allowing the profiling of individual student’s strengths and weaknesses. Configurable boundary points for student participation and achievement. Statistical analysis and reporting. Can send email acknowledgments of results. Can batch email all registered students.

Question Builder

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor, GisburneDB ActiveX, MS Access

Hosed multiple question sets direct from Access databases to ToolBook test files; and extracted multiple-choice question parameters from ToolBook files to Access databases. Thus this application streamlines the production of eLearning materials as well as supported the strategic development of a range of eLearning database assets which interfaced with other systems. An extremely, fast and cost-effective way of centralising eLearning resources.

Epidemiological Principles and Practices (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor

CBT materials accompanying a master’s degree in epidemiology. The screenshot demonstrates the statistical incidence of eye colouration. Packed with interactive activities, this highly-structured CBT system was a pre-internet best-of-breed CBT system.

Co-developed with Dr. Steve Bond, LSHTM.

Health and Lifestyles National Surveys (Health Education Authority)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor

A CD-ROM bringing together over 40 national surveys on health and lifestyles of the UK population. Cross-referenced into 27 different topics and 71 units. Equipped with a full-text search engine, a bookmarking system and the separate tabulation of Health of the Nation targets.

Acrylica 98 (Imperial Chemical Industries)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor

A CD-ROM presentation system of acrylic products, features and applications for sales presentations and internal staff training. The application's menu system could be toggled between novice and expert modes and was capable of being shipped in multiple languages, having an external text-string database to draw on at run-time.

Defence Challenge Senior Quiz (Ministry of Defence)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor

A kiosk application to accompany the MoD’s annual touring exhibition. A complex touch-screen system pitching user knowledge against software cunning, this system attracted queues of keen camouflage-wearing game-players! With its time-critical rule-base, this system pushed ToolBook to the limits of its ability.

Dangerous Goods CBT (CityJet)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor, GisburneDB ActiveX and MS Access

Network-based, secure air crew CBT on dangerous goods. Structured presentation of knowledge-base, followed by two levels of testing and follow-up remediation.Password-protected, stores all results to a network database. Time-limited, packed with Flash animations.

CBT Administration Module (CityJet)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor, GisburneDB ActiveX and MS Access

CBT administration module for the above Dangerous Goods CBT. Standard reporting system with number-crunching for individuals, sub-groups and all employees.Printed course certificates and managed an arcane system of security floppy disks!

Defence Challenge Junior Quiz (Ministry of Defence)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor

This was the junior version of the MoD's Defence Challenge and was arguably no easier to play! Randomised questions were fired at the user who had to respond by touching precise areas of the screen, as can be seen in this screenshot.

MoD3 Authoring Module (Ministry of Defence)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor, GisburneDB ActiveX, MS Access

This was effectively the hot-spot editor for the Defence Challenge Junior Quiz, enabling the MoD’s exhibition staff to reload the Junior Challenge with a fresh set of questions - each with its hot-spot co-ordinated answers - whenever they wanted. Actually a mini-marvel, displaying the unusual flexibility of ToolBook as an authoring system.

Re-cycled Places (the Economic and Social Research Council and the University of Sussex)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor

Innovative CD-ROM co-authored by schoolchildren and subject experts addressing a range of subjects relating to the management and use of local wild spaces. The system logged all interactive use for research purposes.

A series of highly-customised top-level menus give access to a mass of mini-narratives on diverse subjects. Packed with multimedia assets and interactive sequences, Re-cycled Places was truly ahead of its time

Britain's Task Force (Ministry of Defence)

A kiosk application presenting the UK’s defence policies for the MoD’s annual touring exhibition. Runs through the UK’s defence roles and hardware capabilities in a point-and-click touch-screen environment. About 200 screens linked to around 570 multimedia files.

BookMaster/BookMaster Author (Hardlines)

Asymetrix ToolBook Instructor, MS Access, GisburneDB ActiveX

An educational resource tool for the creation of short documents. With a separate data-entry module, it enables publishers to make available read-only versions of their publications, faithfully replicating the original page layout, with all image and text content and positioning information being stored in linked MS Access database files on CD-ROM. Enables teachers to extract selected images and text from these database ’books’ for use in their own documents. In this way, the publisher’s original resources are made available within a controlled context.

DotRational Indexer

VB.NET, Access/ADO.NET, TXTextControl.NET, DataDynamics ActiveReports.NET, SharpUI.NET

A consumer application for managing, previewing and retrieving images, multimedia, PDF and Word document files, and for modifying EXiF and MP3 metadata. Packed with advanced functionality, Indexer enables Windows (XP and Vista) users to map their files with their own keywords,enabling rapid file indexing and retrieval.

Aviation Theory Revision Aid

Rewritten from its ToolBook ancestor so that content and interface were separated. 500,000 words/900 pages of text held in an index database, injected into the GUI at run-time. Free-text search, bookmarks, links to 2,000 Flash movies, glossary definitions. Inter-operates with its companion application, Student Course Management System.

DTP / page make-up (Cambridge University Press)

Quark XPress

Full DTP and page make-up for a 324-page, hardback academic text book - packed with graphs, charts and tables - for Cambridge University Press, including direct liaison with the editor. Full details available at www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521472555.

I subsequently worked on several other publications as a freelancer with Quark during the mid-1990s.

File Sharer

VB.NET, TXTextControl.NET, WebZinc.NET

A bilingual system for transferring paired Word + JPEG files between different physical sites that share a common website (which acts as an FTP staging-post). Supports use by adults with special visual requirements, and is fully accessibility-compliant.

Student Course Management System

VB.NET, Access/ADO.NET, TXTextControl.NET, DataDynamics ActiveReports.NET, WebZinc.NET, BigSpeedZIP

Links to the above Aviation Theory Revision Aid, companion application. Mapping 2,500 multiple-choice questions to the content, extracting both at run-time into the GUI. Enables students to plot their progress in answering these m/c questions. Allows students to submit their results incrementally to their course managers by simplified FTP.

Curriculum Editor

Word Visual Basic for Applications, MS Access

Allows course managers to modify the database indices, the multiple-choice questions and the contents of the curriculum database for the Aviation Theory Revision Aid and Student Course Management System applications described above. Allows full edits of these curricular assets from within Microsoft Word. The modified database files can then be forwarded to students using the course.

Digital Resource Database

VB.NET, Access/ADO.NET, TXTextControl.NET, DotNetMagic, DataDynamics ActiveReports.NET

An accessibility-enabled bilingual database for indexing digital media. Links and indexes Word DOC, AVI, MPEG, MP3, WAV, GIF, JPG, WMF, BMP and PNG files.

Supports fast database SQL-searching, favourites and database reports. Password-protected user accounts for multiple network use.

This database - recently re-designed for the web - can be seen in action at the website of The Railway Land Project, www.railwaylandproject.org. Some ideas - and their designs - can indeed have legs!