<b>Glotaran</b>: A<i>Java</i>-Based Graphical User Interface for the<i>R</i>Package<b>TIMP</b>

TLDR

TIMP provides a command‑line interface for data interaction, model specification, and result viewing. This paper introduces Glotaran, a Java‑based graphical user interface for the R package TIMP, and outlines its background, functionality, and development process. Glotaran, built on NetBeans and communicating with R via Rserve, offers interactive data inspection, model specification, and result visualization. Its interactivity greatly facilitates handling large, multi‑dimensional time‑resolved spectroscopy datasets by enabling easy pre‑selection, manipulation, and zooming of regions of interest.

Abstract

In this work the software application called <b>Glotaran</b> is introduced as a Java-based graphical user interface to the R package <b>TIMP</b>, a problem solving environment for fitting superposition models to multi-dimensional data. <b>TIMP</b> uses a command-line user interface for the interaction with data, the specification of models and viewing of analysis results. Instead, <b>Glotaran</b> provides a graphical user interface which features interactive and dynamic data inspection, easier -- assisted by the user interface -- model specification and interactive viewing of results. The interactivity component is especially helpful when working with large, multi-dimensional datasets as often result from time-resolved spectroscopy measurements, allowing the user to easily pre-select and manipulate data before analysis and to quickly zoom in to regions of interest in the analysis results. <b>Glotaran</b> has been developed on top of the <b>NetBeans</b> rich client platform and communicates with R through the Java-to-R interface <b>Rserve</b>. The background and the functionality of the application are described here. In addition, the design, development and implementation process of <b>Glotaran</b> is documented in a generic way.