Re: EPICS on the Alpha

[wbrown@csg.lbl.gov (Bill Brown)]

> >A non-quantitive observation of the situation would show the lack of a
> >need to maintain the code that operates on the binary and old 'short
> >form' report files.  As well as the elimination of the headache of
> >having to keep them in sync (which has been a significant complaint
> >from APS users.)

Indeed, having to wory about this is (IMHO) an "RPITA".

> I have been strongly advocating the movement into total ASCII database
> files and the removal/replacement of the SDR stuff.  WRT the SDR stuff
> --  At a minimum, it should be represented in ASCII and have some of the
> oddities, like recSup.ascii, devSup.ascii and drvSup.ascii removed
> somehow.

Well put!

> I am (obviously) not advocating the conversion to/from ASCII of the data
> transfers that occur over CA... although, I see no reason to forbid
> it... and in fact, I think it is already somewhat supported in that you
> can fetch things in the form of a string.

--John

The one "fly in the ointment", so to speak, is the lack of tools for "pre-
init-time" verification of the .db files.  This is the one _very_ useful
function of dct which seems to have no replacement.

But then, I seem to be one of those people who must exhaust all the incorrect
possibilities before finding the right combination to make anything work.

-bill