Re: Creating a Simple EPICS Sequencer Program

[Bradley Pietrzak <bwpietrz@umail.iu.edu>]

Thank you for you're help, Jay.  I have now successfully built and ran the example program called "sncExample.stt" that is created when I run "makeBaseApp.pl -t example example" followed by "makeBaseApp.pl -i -t example example".  When you say I can simply create my own EPICS application by putting the .st file in the SRCS list in the application's Makefile, exactly what list are you referring to? Are you referring to this Makefile: "<top>/exampleApp/src/Makefile"?  In that Makefile, there is a section that builds sncExample as a component of example and as a standalone application.  Is that where I add my own .st program?

Thanks,

Brad Pietrzak

Indiana University Center for the Exploration of Energy and Matter

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:22 PM, Jay Steele <jsteele@xradia.com> wrote:

Hi Bradley,
   I just went through the process of coming up to speed on State Notation Language myself with EPICS for a robot control application and it is very useful. After you experiment around a little with the example IOC template (per Eric's suggestion below), and then build your own EPICS application, you can simply put the .st file in the application's src directory and add the .st file to the SRCS list in the application makefile. Also, for non-VxWorks OS's such as Linux, add a registrar(stnameRegistrar) statement to your appCommonInclude.dbd file. Then start the SNL task by calling the seq function from your application's startup script after iocInit. See the online document "State Notation Language and Sequencer Users Guide" for a well-written introduction.

   I recommend drawing up your state diagram first if it is complicated.

Cheers,
Jay Steele
Xradia Corporation

-----Original Message-----
From: tech-talk-bounces@aps.anl.gov [mailto:tech-talk-bounces@aps.anl.gov] On Behalf Of Eric Norum
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 11:08 AM
To: Bradley Pietrzak
Cc: tech-talk@aps.anl.gov
Subject: Re: Creating a Simple EPICS Sequencer Program

The example IOC template includes a sequencer program.  I suggest that you use that as a starting point:

makeBaseApp -t example example
makeBaseApp -t example -i example

then edit configure/RELEASE and set SNCEQ
then 'make' and you should have a runnable IOC with an operational sequencer.

On Jun 16, 2011, at 10:47 AM, Bradley Pietrzak wrote:

> Hello,
>

> I am a student working at the Indiana Univeristy Center for the Exploration of Energy and Matter.  Recently, a collegue and I have been tasked with using the EPICS sequencer to cycle some magnets.  However, neither of us are at all familiar with using state notation language.  Our setup is this: we have a computer with a virtual machine on it that contains EPICS and the sequencer.  We do all of our work from a different machine that runs Red Hat Linux.  Using that machine, we ssh into the EPICS virtual machine.  While I have read a couple State Notation Language tutorials, I am still unclear on some key concepts.  What I would most like to know is how to start from nothing and make a program that does nothing more than print the text "Hello World".  I think what confuses us most is how to go from a file named "HelloWorld.st" to something we can actually execute.  At least for now, lets assume that all of the relevant compilers are successfully installed on the EPICS virtua!

 l machine.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Brad Pietrzak

--
Eric Norum
wenorum@lbl.gov

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