How to implement an app which can be two apps or one?

Question

To clarify:

1. I want to collect data from from a hardware sensor and display it on a PC in the location in which it is collected.
2. I want to do some data-mining and show the results on a PC which may or may not be co-located.

So, some folks might want both functionalities in one location and some in two.

What's the best way to provide this, given that there will probably be some shared code?

Two separate apps, or one app which can display functionality A, B or A & B deepening on the customer?

If one app, what would you use to display two windows? Side by side, Tabsheet or what?

Or does it just depend on the piece of string?

Answer 1

I would use separate apps. A non-visual service running in the background collecting the data, and a viewer app to display it to users. The viewer app can then run on the local machine and remote machines, all making connections to the service to receive data updates.