Status of the object-oriented EGS interface project

The object-oriented EGS interface project seeks to simplify - using modern object-oriented and visual user interface techniques - the geometry and scoring aspects of the process of running the EGS code. The project will create an extremely user-friendly EGS package that retains and exploits the well documented physics advantages of EGS but removes the requirement that the user write HOWFAR and AUSGAB subroutines to define the geometry and scoring aspects of each new problem. In addition, several physics enhancements will be incorporated in EGS5. Although EGS5 will be able to be used in the traditional way - in a stand-alone fashion with users writing their own geometry and scoring subroutines - it is designed to be used in a completely new way - linked to a user interface through which users can manage all aspects of problem specification and code operation. This paper concentrates on the object-oriented user interface, which will dramatically simplify defining problem-specific detail for EGS. The 'EGS5 + VUI1' package will allow users to solve independent problems by run-time linking of the EGS5 code with class libraries that encapsulate the geometry and scoring aspects of each problem. Some simple example problems are considered in order to illustrate features of the EGS5 + VUI1 package. (author)