As well as its scientific objectives, the AST library's design includes a number of technical criteria intended to make it applicable to as wide a range of projects as possible. The main considerations are described here:
A JNI interface (known as “JNIAST” - see http://www.starlink.ac.uk/jniast/) has also been developed by Starlink which allows AST to be used from Java.
The Fortran interface is, unavoidably, machine dependent. However, the potential for problems has been minimised by encapsulating the interface layer in a compact set of C macros which facilitate its transfer to other platforms. No Fortran compiler is needed to build the library.
Currently, AST is supported by Starlink on PC Linux, Sun Solaris and Tru64 Unix (formerly DEC UNIX) platforms.