RE: empty channel field in medm/dm2k

[johill@lanl.gov (Jeff Hill)]

> >  In the source code of medm, I found the following code segment 
> > in medm/medm/medmCA.c file.  
> > ==================================================================
> >     if (strlen(name) > (size_t)0) {
> >         status = ca_build_and_connect(name,TYPENOTCONN,0,
> >           &(pCh->chid),NULL,medmConnectEventCb,pCh);
> >     } else {
> >         status = ca_build_and_connect(" ",TYPENOTCONN,0,
> >           &(pCh->chid),NULL,medmConnectEventCb,pCh);
> >     }
> > ==================================================================
> 
>      Yes, I have noticed.  It was that way when I got it.  I think it
> is a hack to avoid some kind of error, but I don't know what.  Perhaps
> it is to force CA to allocate the usual structures instead of properly
> handling the situation.  

I suspect that the original Author was attempting to circumvent the error 
returned from the CA client library when you create a channel with a zero 
length name.

Jeff