RE: ATTN Platform Developers

[mrk@aps.anl.gov (Marty Kraimer)]

First let me thank everyone who made comments about EPICS Software
distribution.  Before I give the latest proposal let me mention
a few of the comments that resulted in changes to the proposal.

patch files.
	Greg Sherwin pointed out that patches should be distributed
	as patch files rather than complete sources.

Password Protected FTP
	Several people responded to this including people here
	at APS who asked "Why didnt you just come and ask me".
	I had been thinking of each file being separately protected.
	APS/XFD is already distributing code via WWW. Entire trees
	are protected. Thus a users only has to enter
	a userid/password once for an entire tree.
	It will be seen below that we will also make it possible
	for users to retrieve EPICS code via regular ftp
	of via WWW.

Freeware (TCL/TK, CVS, etc)
	I think that the consensus is that it is desirable
	to make all freeware needed to run EPICS available
	via the EPICS WWW software distribution. Users dont have
	to search all over the internet to get it and also
	can get a version they know works with EPICS.
	EPICS WWW can have actual code or else links to
	the site that actually has the software desired.

Unbundling Extensions
	Steve Lewis was the only one who responded to this.
	I have also given more thought to this. The proposal
	below completely Unbundles Extension Products.
	Each Extension Product will be maintained
	by the site that is actually responsible for it.
	This may not be as convient for users but it is just
	too difficult to maintain at a central location without
	staff dedicated to this task.

X11R5 needed by MEDM
	Pete Jemian asked why we dont upgrade to X11R6.
	Fred Vong, who is responsible for MEDM, is gone until
	the middle of Janurary and we can have him look at
	this. My guess is that MEDM needs AT LEAST R5. As I
	recall R4 did not support drag and drop. My guess is that
	MEDM work with R6 but I dont know for sure.

Meeting with APS/XFD personnel
	We discussed the following outline. A major comment was
	that what is being proposed is a good way of organizing
	files but is probably not the way the WWW pages should
	be structured, i.e. this is great for developers but
	not necessarily for users. Thus thought is required
	for structuring of WWW pages.

I also want to make a comment about why I started this topic.
On December 5th there was an APS Beamline Controls meeting.
At that meeting there was a request for the Beamline Software
Exchange to keep current on EPICS releases. In addition there
was a request for statically built sunos and solaris extensions
for the latest release. My immediate
thought was that this is an EPICS wide problem so lets see if
we cant just set up a better mechanism for EPICS software
distribution keeping in mind that there is no large centrally
located group of people assigned this responsibility.

Here is the latest Proposal

________________________________________________________________

Proposed refinement of procedures for Platform responsibilities
Please comment if you have suggestions for improvement.
This information will be added to the document
"Distributed Development, Distyribution, and Support"
when we have agreed on following.

The goal is to distribute all EPICS software via the WWW.
In addition EPICS software can also be obtained via ftp.
If is up to the user to choose the method.

Any free software is made available via anonymous ftp
and via WWW without the user being prompted for a userid
or password.

If software is restricted by the EPICS agreement it is password
protected. If ftp is used then it requires a userd and password.
On WWW the user will be prompted for a userid and password.


APS Will maintain the following WWW info. For material
maintained by other sites the APS WWW merely has links
to the responsible site.

APS HOME PAGE
  APS Overview
    EPICS Information
      Software Distribution (This replaces Statically Linked Extensions)

At this point a new page comes up containing:

EPICS Software Distribution

Guide to Obtaining EPICS Software
Third Party Free Software Needed by EPICS
  CVS Release x.x
  GNU
    Make Release x.x
    ?
  TCL
    Tcl Release 7.4
    Tk Release 4.0
    BLT Release x.x
    TCL_DP Release
   Interviews Release x.x
   ?
Epics Base
  Release 3.12.2 (Details of separate page)
    README
    ReleaseNotesBase
    baseUnbuilt.tar.Z
    patchesBase
	README
	<fix1>.patch
	<fix2>.patch
		...
  Release <perfection>
    <like Release 3.12.2 except no bugs and satisfys all desires>
Extensions
  List of Extension Products
    ALH - APS/ASD/Controls (link supplied)
    MEDM - APS/ASD/Controls (link supplied)
    DM - LANL/AOT (link supplied)
    ...
  List of Contributed Record/Device/Driver Support
  ? Should anything else appear here??? (I say no)
Platform Specific
  solaris (NOTE: This is just link to Platform Developers Site)
    Release 3.12.2
	README
	basePreBuilt.tar.Z (Unix binaries only. User has to build IOC)
	patchesBase (Platform specific additions to Base/patchesBase)
		README
		<fix1>.patch
		<fix2>.patch
		...
	patchesExtensions (Platform specific additions to Extensions/patchesExt)
		README
		<fix1>.patch
		<fix2>.patch
		...
	staticBuiltExtensions
		alh.Z
		...
  sun4 (NOTE: This is just link to Platform Developers Site)
	<like solaris>
  HPUX
  ...

APS/ASD (Accelerator System Division)
  Controls Group
    EPICS Extension Products
      ALH
	Release x.x (Epics Release 3.12.x)
	    README
	    ALH Users Manual
	    ReleaseNotes
	    unbuilt.tar.Z
	    patches
	      README
	      <fix1>.patch
	      <fix2>.patch
		...
      MEDM
	(like ALH)
      BURT
      EZCA
      KM
      KNOBCONFIG
      GDCT
      motifButton
      Probe
      stripTool
      HIDEOS
      appSR
  Operations and Analysis
    SDDS
    EPICS Extensions
      namecapture
      orbitscreen
      rampload
      tcl_et
      tcl_it
      tcl_select
APS/XFD (Experimental System Division)
  Epics Extensions
    ezcaIDL
    math
    pvwave
    snaps
    wingz
    xmca
    xmseq
  Beamlines Software Exchange
LANL/AOT 
  Epics Extensions
    ar
    edif
    dct
CEBAF 
  CODA
  CDEV
  CAMAC
  Epics Extensions
    medm_cebaf
      
APS Beamline Users
  <Whatever they want>
GEMINI Users
....


NOTES:

Above should be read as guide to organizing where software resides
not necessarily how WWW pages are presented to users.

The above list does not include all Extensions, free software, etc.

The platform dependent portion of the tree will be maintained by
the Platform Developer. APS just supplys a URL referencing the
Platform Developers site.

Each Extension product is maintained by the site responsible for
the product. This includes the following:
   1) Code
   2) Documentation
   3) WWW page and ftp site for code distribution
APS merely maintains the list of Extension Products and which
site maintains the product as well as a link to the site.

The user specific portions, e.g. "APS Beamline Users" are managed by
associated users.  The APS WWW merely has a URL refering to the user site.

APS will maintain the Base portion of the tree.

APS is also willing to initially populate the solaris and sun4
specific portions for new releases (our users need them!!) but
will rely on the associated Platform Developers to handle problems.
For sun4 we will not be able to accept responsibility for sun4
once we have completely converted APS/ASD to solaris.

What about Europe? Will Europe have to maintain a mirror site
because of the difficulties if transfering large files between
U.S.A. and Europe?

Bakul Banerjee from the APS/XFD is currently installing, on an
XFD server, all software needed to run the EPICS products
used by SRI CAT. Thus she is re-discovering all the problems
every new site goes through. She will be responsible for
setting up the EPICS FTP and WWW Software framework discribed above
(or any changes resulting from additional comments).



Marty Kraimer