QQQ Software

Isolating TPL Tables from the Episodic Evolution of Windows

In 1984, the Bureau of Labor Statistics stopped further development on their Table Producing Language (TPL) system. This statistical analysis software was developed throughout the 70’s and 80’s to run large number-crunching jobs on IBM mainframes. When development stopped, two of the developers left to start QQQ Software with the intention of building the best tabulation software available and port it to Unix systems and PC’s. 

Their first Unix release was in 1987, and it was soon offered in a Windows version.

QQQ Software developed TPL Tables, a powerful and flexible cross tabulation system used by governments and other public institutions for both data analysis and publication. Customers include the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Cornell University, as well as international customers such as Statistics Canada and China’s Census Bureau. Written in C, their software first began using XVT for the GUI under Windows 3.1 (mid 90’s). Today, they support Win 98, XP, and 2000, as well as Unix and Linux.

The TPL Tables software often runs massive data calculations, sometimes taking many hours to complete. These run in the background in character mode on large Unix and Linux servers, and the user rarely interacts with the program. But QQQ’s customers frequently use the Windows version to run smaller jobs or design their tables interactively on the desktop before they put them into "production" on a server or Unix machine. On Windows in layout mode, the GUI is important to the user.

XVT provides a powerful Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool for building the GUI and then delivers an ANSI compliant C code that will compile and run natively on a wide variety of platforms—in this case, Windows. While this has been useful, the real benefit for Stephen is the extra XVT “layer” that takes care of Windows API and library changes, keeping Stephen and his developers from needing to make low-level changes for each new Windows release. QQQ is often called on by their worldwide customers to do a port in a day, including a supercomputer in Canada, and a mainframe in Spain. Stephen points out, “Portability is important to me, but day to day, the GUI is not.” He adds, “We achieve a high degree of portability by isolating the logic code from the GUI, and XVT is a real asset to us in doing so.”

QQQ Software has successfully achieved their initial goal and much more. TPL Tables is the best tabulation software available, and it is used worldwide in major organizations and governments to perform massive data computations and statistical information presentations. You can learn more at their website, www.qqqsoft.com.