Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

You are assuming that you have control over what systems are supported and who is using it.  This is not true in our case.  We test our java software on Linux, windows, and Mac, but users are free to run it on any system that they have that supports java.  This is one advantage of java native code. 

At IPNS we use java based visualization software (ISAW).  This software already has access to our histogram data via a home-made live data server (CA couldn't handle the large arrays, nor did it provide a java native interface).  It also can read our data files and SDDS log files.  It can not access any of the live instrument configuration data, which is channel access.  MEDM screens are used on local computers for this control.

Rodney Porter
ANL-IPNS

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Hill [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 10:50 AM
To: 'Tim Mooney'
Cc: 'Christopher A. Larrieu'; 'EPICS-tech-talk'
Subject: RE: CA protocol documentation.

>
> Tim Mooney wrote:
> But if we require the end user to install the interface
> as a separate, priviledged operation, we lose a big chunk
> of the potential audience.  Most folks at APS aren't
> authorized to install software on their own office computer,
> for example, because of computer-security rules.
>

Again, I know very little about Java, but it seems that if we did the
necessary work up front that we could have a small set of system
specific _javascript_s maintained in a central repository that would
perform a user specific CA client library install that does not require
system administrator privileges.

> Chip Watson wrote:
> The VERY strong advantage of a pure java implementation is the >
ability to deploy applications to the desktop, with automatic
> upgrade to new versions using Java Web Start, with no
> requirements for ANY locally installed code.

I suppose, that with enough effort, an automatic upgrade would also be
possible, but perhaps this is a non issue because many users might
prefer, and in some cases demand, that they choose when and when not to
receive a new version.

Jeff

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