Re: Naming bits in an mbbiDirect record

[André Favoto via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Sounds good to me also, and it could also be useful in other cases besides the one on this thread 🙂 

I have limited time given my work on WEISS ramping up a bit recently, but I am available to help!

Not to be pedantic, but for me it is still not clear what is/are the point(s) against the bit name fields...

Having 32 full extra binary records feels like extra memory footprint than 32 optional string fields of 20 chars or so, if that is the concern.

Having the bit names paired to the bit values would still be the natural approach, even after having the info() structures available.

Perhaps this discussion can be taken back to https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/846 for proper documentation?

I'm happy to close the issue if we agree against it, or work on it otherwise.

Best Regards,

André Favoto

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From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> on behalf of Simon Rose via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Sent: Monday, September 7, 2026 09:19
To: Ralph Lange <ralph.lange at gmx.de>; EPICS Tech Talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: Naming bits in an mbbiDirect record

 

To my recollection it was never developed because no one ever picked it up enough to complete it. It’s still a good idea IMO.

Cheers,

S.

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> on behalf of Ralph Lange via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Date: Saturday, 5 September 2026 at 14:49
To: EPICS Tech Talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: Naming bits in an mbbiDirect record

If I remember correctly, some years ago, there was an idea thrown around at a Codeathon to make the 'info()' structures readable across the network.

That feature would allow you to add any number of string tags to any record, but without record-specific code, without blowing up the field list and without adding to the memory footprint of every instance.

Does anyone remember why that feature was never fully developed?

Cheers,
~Ralph