SURVEY
This is a short survey intended for developers and users of bio-
technology software. The goal of the survey is to gain a better understanding
of the needs and desires of the bioinformatics community. A key area of focus
is object oriented technologies and their potential application. You may
choose to complete any or none of the responses. The results of the survey
will be used by ZumaSoft, a consulting firm not affiliated with any other
entity, in their product development efforts and will be held confidential.
Please note that this is not intended in any way as a commercial
advertisement. Please feel free to collaborate with your colleagues.
Thanks for your help.
Ted Stevens
President, ZumaSoft
Section 1 - Graphical User Interfaces
1) What GUI/workstation do you use most often in your workplace ?
MacIntosh ______
Windows ______
MSDOS ______
OS/2 ______
Silicon Graphics ______
Hewlett Packard ______
Sun OpenLook ______
NeXT ______
Other (specify) _________________________________
2) Approximately what percentage of others in your workplace use this same
GUI ? _______
3) How many different applications is your organization likely to
bring up this year on your answer to 1 ? ______
4) How was your training on your main GUI obtained ?
1) Vendor training ______
2) Independent training firm ______
3) In house training program ______
4) Other ______
5) How well does the GUI metaphor (dialog...) specifically fit the domain
space of your projects' tasks ?
1) Not at all ______
2) Like a glove ______
3) Somewhat greater than 50% ______
4) Somewhat less than 50% ______
5) It works ok but our technicians often get frustrated (please elaborate).
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Section 2 - Database technology
6) What type of database ( if any ) do you use ?
1) Relational (please specify) ____________________________________
2) Object Oriented (please specify) ____________________________________
3) None ______
4) Other (please specify) ____________________________________
7) Who designed and implemented your database schema ?
1) You ______
2) IS department ______
3) Other ______
8) Approximately what level of effort (man months) went into designing and
implementing your database schema ? ______
9) How often do you modify your database schema ? ________________________
10) How many people depend on your database ? ______
How many organizations ? ______
11) How robust is your query language ? (please identify and elaborate)
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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Section 3 - Programming
12) Do you use a high level language in your work ? (please specify)
______________________________________________________________________
13) Have you previously investigated object oriented programmimng ?
(please elaborate) ___________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
14) Which aspects of OO programming (inheritance, polymorphism,
encapsulation, code reuse ...) have you found most encouraging ?
(please elaborate) ____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Most problematic ? (please elaborate) _________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
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Section 4 - General
15) Has your organization ever performed an EDP audit ? ______
16) Has your system ever been attacked by a computer virus or worm ? ______
17) Comments about anything _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Section 5 - Professional Info
18) Name, title, and organization _________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
19) Main area of expertise ________________________________________________
20) Address and phone number ______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Please return via email to 72674.3161 at compuserve.com. Thank you.
