A Object-Oriented Implementation of a Chemical Waste Consolidation Expert System

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1. Background and Rationale


2. Interface Design

• 2.1. The Chemical and Chemical Mixture Interface
• 2.2. The Bottle or Transporter Interface
• 2.3. The Drum Storage Interface

3. System Design

• 3.1. System Environment
• 3.2. The Waste Consolidation System Design Overview
• 3.3. The Chemical Library: Class ChemBook
• 3.4. The Bottle (Transporter) Library: Class BottleBook
• 3.5. The Drum Library: Class DrumBook

4. Evaluation and Results

• 4.1. Real-Time Application of Prototype
• 4.2. Software and Logic Testing
• 4.3. Usability Testing
  

5. Future Work

6. Conclusions

Bibliography and References

Appendix A. Example Drum Report

Appendix B. Chemical Compatibility Testing Data

3.1.System Environment

The waste consolidation software is written using the C++ object-oriented language to assure portability and high compatibility with a laptop running Microsoft Windows XP Professional at a remote location without internet access. The software is compiled using Microsoft Visual C++ Express Edition, which is currently available as freeware. Since the software is written in C++, it is portable to all systems with compilers for this common language. For ease of editing, all the input files are comma-delineated text files with a .csv extension. This allows the user to examine and directly edit the content using a spreadsheet or database program such as Microsoft Excel. This proved invaluable during prototype design and testing. To disseminate the most current information, the reports are generated as text files with a .txt extension. This insures that they may be opened and printed from any computer using simple, readily-available text editors.  This is the primary form of information distribution to the University Police Department and Environmental Health & Safety.