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<== Date ==> <== Thread ==>

Subject: Re: Sequencer on Host system (or something similar)
From: Noboru Yamamoto <[email protected]>
To: Mathias Muench <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected], Matthieu Bec <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 14:40:23 +0900
Hi, 

Mathias Muench wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> the HADES collaboration (http://hades.gsi.de) is evaluating EPICS as a way to
 > control its data acquisition software.  EPICS will be used for
general slow
> control anyhow, so this solution would save us the n+1st technology in the
> experiment.
> 
> The DAQ system consists of roughly a dozen front end computers running LynxOS
> and a few UNIX workstations (up to now ALPHAS, but this may change in the
> future).  You probably spot the point, in the DAQ system itself there is no
> VxWorks anywhere (alhtough there are VxWorks systems for the "normal" slow
> control).
> 
> Up to now I compiled the portable channel access server on LynxOS and it's
> running fine.  Now I'm looking for a way to implement the user interface.
> 
> Something like medm would do the job, but I need a way to control several PVs
> on several front end systems in one step.  For example, starting the data
> acquisition means starting several processes on several LynxOS and UNIX
> machines.  A very nice way would be the implementation of a state machine, but
> as I understand, the sequencer runs under VxWorks only.
> 
> Now the questions:  Is there a sequencer or any other resaonable way to
> implement procedures on the host system that control several PVs.
> I had a look at tcl_et, but I would prefer a more restricted language for the
> user interface and probably even for the state machine.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mathias

Dr. Tatsuro Nakamura of our group once developed a modified version
of EPICS sequencer run on Unix. He wrote this version when he was at CERN.
In KEK, we don't have the environment to test it and EPICS sequencer
itself 
evolved since then. So, there is a possibility to run EPICS sequencer on 
Unix but some work is required. 

We also use Python to access EPICS runtime database from host computers
(HP-UX 
and Digital Unix). We use Python/CA/Tkinter program for daily operation
of KEKB accelerators.
We don't have Python/CA documentation yet, but you can get source code
of 
Python/CA interface from

http://www-acc.kek.jp/WWW-ACC-exp/KEKB/control/Activity/Python/CaPython.tar.gz

(this version can be old. I will update it to recent on in a few days.)

Python is a full featured interpreted programing language. It supports 
object oriented programing with automatic garbage collection. 
Syntax is simple and clean.  Standard/extended libraries are another 
key components of Python system. If it lacks some library you need, you
can extend Python using C/C++. ( So we can add CA interface to Python)

Source of Python(for All Unix variants: Linux, Sun Solaris, SGI IRIX,
DEC Unix, IBM AIX, HP-UX, SCO, NeXT, BSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD;and Windows)
is available from

http://www.python.org/

and it should not so difficult to compile it on other Unix environment.
(There was a report that someone succeeded to compile Python for
VxWorks. QNX,BeOS versions also exist.)

Matthieu Bec wrote:
> 
> Hi Mathias,
> 
> I ported channel access client for Python, yet another scripting language.
> Python provides among others object oriented constructs and your code might endup
> 
> looking better than simple Tcl.
> Note this is primarily intended as a command line interpreter,
> you could plugin Tk and create GUI .. but I guess that brings you back to the
> original problem.
> 
> you can get a preview at:
> 
>      http://www.ing.iac.es/~mdcb/pythonCA.html
> 
> (note I've been informed other people have worked on python)
> 
> You could also consider loading the tcl OO extension (itcl), which helps a lot
> structuring code,
> 
> Cheers,
>  Matthieu.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Matthieu Bec                       Isaac Newton Group
> tel  : +34 922 425427              Apartado de Correos 321
> fax  : +34 922 425401              38780 Santa Cruz de La Palma
> url  : www.ing.iac.es/~mdcb        Canary Islands, Spain
> 

Regards,

Noboru Yamamoto
KEKB control group
KEK, JAPAN


References:
Sequencer on Host system (or something similar) Mathias Muench

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