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

Subject: Re: Recommended display manager?
From: "Kasemir, Kay (ky9)" <[email protected]>
To: "Dalesio, Leo" <[email protected]>, Carl Schumann <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:04:03 -0400
Hi:

[email protected] on 8/20/08 11:29 :
> 1) edm - mature, tested. nice edit features, good functionality and well
> supported by John Sinclair who has done a fantastic job from the start. If you
> need to deploy something in the next 6 months, I would use this one.
Really looks like the best current pick of the medm/dm2k/edm group.
But it's Unix-only. There is no integration with StripTool, ALH, Probe
or your other contol system applications other than you may run them
in parallel and copy/paste PV names between them.

> 2) CSS - goal is to create a more integrated operator environment. Great
> progress and something to investigate. At NSLS II, we are installing and
> investigating this one. We go operational in 3 years. DESY need to deploy it
> in the near future. If you are a fan of Eclipse - this is your baby
The "Synoptic Display" part of CSS would be my hope for a next display
manager. No longer limited to Unix, based on the 'drawing program' idea
of previous display managers, but much more flexible:
There's no difference between a "Text Label" and a "PV Value Text Display".
Both are just a text. The Label with value = "Some Text",
the PV display with value = <current value of a PV converted to a string>.
Each property (value, background color, position, font, ...) can be
dynamically linked to PVs, and one can run the PV data through Javascript
to for example change the color based on the PV's value, severity,
time stamp, ...

And while previous installations had to use *edm, Striptool, probe, some
custom tools and then duck-tape them together with something like tcl/tk
so that operators could use them,
CSS already ties them together much better:
You can right-click on any PV anywhere and open Striptool (Data Browser)
on them; when you add your site's PV name browser that looks at your
LDAP repository (as for DESY) or relational database (as for SNS),
that tool fits in with the other tools.

On the downside:
- The synoptic display still has some issues.
- What used to be tcl/tk duck tape is now called
  "bundling Eclipse plugins into an RCP application".
  I think the result is much better, but you still have to do it.

> 3) CAML - just out of the gate and perhaps a compliment to 1 and 2 - this is a
> web based display manager as I understand it.
It's a Channel Access client plugin for most web browsers
(all but internet explorer) that allows you to use
Channel Access from within Java Script.
But instead of writing your own Javascript, you can create XML
files in a certain format which describe what PVs you would like
to display on your web page and how (text, meter, ...),
and CAML creates the HTML and Javascript for you.

It probably offers the best performance for web-based channel access
displays, because your web browser directly reads from channel access.
One can argue about how easy it is to create the XAML XML files,
compared to the drawing-program-type approach of the other
display managers.
At this time, if your users don't have the CA plugin installed,
it just won't work.
Better would be a 'Flash Player' type behavior where you get a popup
that sais "To display this page, you need the Channel Access Plugin.
Do you want to install it?" etc.

So actually I agree with Bob:
1) edm is the one you can use right now
2) CSS is a very interesting development,
   many pieces already usable, but still under development
3) CAML/web based displays are a great compliment, but
   unclear if a web interface will be a full replacement for
   all control room displays and applications.

-Kay


References:
RE: Recommended display manager? Dalesio, Leo

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