Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Dear folks,

calc R3-4 is now available here:
http://www.aps.anl.gov/bcda/synApps/calc/calc.html

Release 3-4

• acalcout record: new functions, better treatment of subranges:
  • IXMAX: index of largest array element
  • IXMIN: index of smallest array element
  • IXZ: index of first zero crossing in array
  • IXNZ: index of first nonzero array element
  • FITQ, FITMQ: fit to quadratic and optionally return fit coefficients. (Replacements for deprecated FITPOLY, FITMPOLY.)
  • CAT: concatenate array subranges, or an array subrange and a double.
  • operators ^ and ** reimplemented to permit noninteger exponents.
  • acalcout expressions now maintain array extents on the stack, so, for example, the _expression_ avg(aa[1,10]) really is an average of just aa[1,10]. Previously, avg(aa[1,10]) actually performed sum(aa[1,10])/arraySize. Now it does sum(aa[1,10])/10.
• scalcout and transform records: operators ^ and ** reimplemented to permit noninteger exponents.
• use Perl's ExtUtils::Command to concatenate .dbd files, instead of local cat.pl. Left old stuff in place, for now, in case someone has a problem with the new method.
• Minor improvements in interp
• When an scalcout fails to fetch a string field, give an informative error message.

Release 3-3

• The transform record now supports expressions with user-specified variable names. For example, instead of the _expression_ "a-b/2", you could arrange to write "$center+$size/2". Variable names are specified using the CMTx fields. The sizes of calc fields have been increased from 80 to 120 to better accommodate variable names.  (See http://www.aps.anl.gov/bcda/synApps/calc/transformRecord.html#Expressions)
  
• Make it easier to add 10 more usercalcs by writing, e.g., userCalcouts10more.db