Re: no more __DATE__

[Timo Korhonen via Core-talk <core-talk@aps.anl.gov>]

HI Ralph,

 

I can ask Dirk. I think he would be delighted to do something like that. I will let you know.

 

Timo

 

From: Core-talk <core-talk-bounces@aps.anl.gov> on behalf of EPICS Core Talk <core-talk@aps.anl.gov>
Reply-To: Ralph Lange <ralph.lange@gmx.de>
Date: Friday 15 November 2019 at 09:01
To: EPICS Core Talk <core-talk@aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: no more __DATE__

 

On Fri, 15 Nov 2019 at 06:05, Ralph Lange <ralph.lange@gmx.de> wrote:

My favourite: One line printed per module linked into the IOC, so that you have a small table of "versions used" in the log - even when you're looking at old logs where issuing a "version" command should have been done months ago.

 

Well ... there's actually two things that are probably to be handled separately:

 

1. An ASCII splash screen

That's technically pretty useless, but a traditional and valuable marketing tool. Remember the VxWorks logo that was scrolling through when an IOC booted? You do, even after more than a decade - that's why it's valuable.

We could have a splash, based on an ASCII version of the new logo. Maybe mention the main contributing labs (like the CS-Studio splash)? 10 lines max.?

And - like in VxWorks - users should be able to opt out by setting an environment variable.

 

2. A condensed module version listing

Nowadays, the report() method of the device support API uses the wrong granularity - I don't want to see 25 identical lines for my Device Support just because it supports 25 record types.

Any IOC software module (including Base) should be able to set a one-line string that will be printed when a "version" command runs. For production systems useful to be run at startup to have a short list of the versions in the log file. When developing, you might care less.

 

Both look like pretty projects for the February codeathon.

@Timo: Do you think Dirk also does ASCII design?

 

Cheers,
~Ralph