Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

"Mooney, Tim M." <[email protected]> · Mon, 7 Nov 2016 18:29:48 +0000

Hi Lewis,

> I appreciate the work people are doing, but I feel that it's really
> unclear where a lot of the APS BCDA synApps project homes are.

Yes, we should put notes about github on those pages.  All synApps modules have been switched
to github, and those modules with releases dated after the switch do have redirects to github.  For
example, the three most recent autosave releases, and the four most recent calc releases,  actually
link to github, while earlier releases still link to local web content.

I think it's a good idea to maintain links at http://aps.anl.gov/bcda/synApps for module releases and
documentation, because a lot of already released documentation (by us and by other people) has
hardcoded links to that URL.  Also, I don't know how automatically to have .html files hosted on github
display as intended; github displays them as text files, which is ok for development, but not helpful for
folks who just want to read the documentation.  (For clarity, go to http://aps.anl.gov/bcda/synApps/autosave
/autosave.html, and click on a recent link to 'autosaveRestore.html.'  You get interpreted HTML, via
htmlpreview.github.io.  If you go to github -
https://github.com/epics-modules/autosave/blob/master/documentation/autoSaveRestore.html -
you get the same thing as a text file, which is not what most people want.)

> On another note, I noticed there's a 1 after the www in the hostname
> part of the BCDA home page URL? ... that seems like a strange URL for the BCDA home page.

Not our call.  I think the plan is to get back to www.aps.anl.gov when the web guys are done converting
everything from the old system to the new system.

Tim Mooney ([email protected]) (630)252-5417
Beamline Controls Group (www.aps.anl.gov)
Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Lab

________________________________________
From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of J. Lewis Muir [[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2016 10:57 AM
To: EPICS Tech-Talk
Cc: 梁雅翔
Subject: Re: motor6-10

On 11/06, Mark Rivers wrote:
> The motor module home is on github here:
>
> https://github.com/epics-modules/motor

Sorry to hijack this thread, but if I do a Google search for "epics
motor record" (without the quotes), the above GitHub page isn't even on
the first page of results.  A search for "epics motor module" (without
the quotes) does return the above GitHub page on the first page of
results, but it's the 7th or 8th result from the top.  The top result
for both searches is:

  http://www.aps.anl.gov/bcda/synApps/motor/

That page says, "This is the home page for both the motor record and
various motor controllers supported by motor record device/drivers."
There is no mention of the GitHub page.  At the bottom, it also says,
"Page Last Modified: 04/06/2007," yet it lists module R6-9 with a
release date of "01/07/2015".

I appreciate the work people are doing, but I feel that it's really
unclear where a lot of the APS BCDA synApps project homes are.

If the motor module's home is now on GitHub, then the BCDA synapps/motor
page should have a statement at the top saying that.  Even better
would be an HTTP redirect to the GitHub project page.  If the BCDA
synapps/motor page is meant to remain as the website for the motor
module while the GitHub page is the development hosting page for
developers, that's fine too, but the website page should clearly point
people to the project page on GitHub for development.

I thought I'd check some other synApps modules, so I navigated to the
BCDA home page:

  https://www1.aps.anl.gov/BCDA

I clicked on Software, and none of the pages for the modules listed
under synApps reference a GitHub development page.

Again, I do appreciate the work being done, but I think the web pages
are confusing at the moment.

On another note, I noticed there's a 1 after the www in the hostname
part of the BCDA home page URL?  Is that some kind of load-balancing
or failover scheme?  Maybe not since www2 doesn't work.  Even if
it was, shouldn't that be internal rather than public?  I would
expect the BCDA home page to be hosted on www.aps.anl.gov just
like EPICS is; that would be consistent.  I wouldn't mention this
if I got redirected to www1 from www (presumably as part of a
load-balancing scheme), but <https://www.aps.anl.gov/BCDA> does not
work. <https://www1.aps.anl.gov/BCDA> seems to be the only URL that
works, and that seems like a strange URL for the BCDA home page.

Thanks,

Lewis

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System