Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:
Dear Monks,
I am developing a Perl/C pipeline which is placed on an UNIX server. At the moment I am accessing it in Windows through Putty, providing simple command line arguments.
I need to however make it easy to use for non-computer savvy people who use Linux/mac/windows. I am quite good in in making the software work but have no experience in cross-platforms compatibility, networks or GUIs.
Does anyone have any idea what would be the best approach? The user need to submit a string and select multiple options. The program will then run for 2-3 days so it would be nice if there was a way to see the progress, cancel the script and see if it is finished. After it's done I need to visualize the data which atm I provide in excel spreadsheet.
I was thinking about an JavaScript webpage with all the options but don't know is people will be able to access it easily in Windows. Maybe a Java or a Perl GUI?
A multi-platform desktop app that connects to a server would be absolutely ideal but I have no idea how difficult it is to do for someone with limited knowledge of distributed systems.
Any ideas are welcome. I spend a lot of time developing the pipeline but it won't be used a lot unless I make it incredibly easy to access. Thanks in advance for your advice. I am open to learning new stuff and spending 1 or 2 months on it.