The benefits of posing application software as a language interpreter

Complicated and comprehensive software that is meant to execute in a non-interactive or semi-interactive mode needs to be configured to carry out the desired tasks, needs to carry out those tasks efficiently, needs to be extensible to take on additional ambitions, and needs to be maintainable. To reduce costs, it is helpful if experts in the discipline to which the program applies can configure and operate the program without needing to become expert software engineers and without needing to become familiar with the internal details of the program, and if software engineers who develop and maintain the program need not become experts in its target discipline. Progress toward these goals can be advanced by posing the software as a language interpreter. We describe the application of this principle to ground-based data analysis software for the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument on the NASA Earth Observing System Aura satellite, but we believe the principle has substantially broader applicability. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.