Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

John William Sinclair <[email protected]> · Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:06:17 -0400

Well, in my opinion, one of EPICS best features is the extent to which

the current version does work with older versions. But

there are other issues.

Consider a successful commercial application. Development proceeds along

various paths, guided by requests from the user

community, changes in operating system capabilities, developer

innovation, etc. Before a release, many activities commence among

the staff members resulting in great frustration, with one developer

cursing himself for giving the OK to hire that whelp in the next office,

another fighting with the new compiler, and others who are struggling to

find those last three bugs, and so on. Finally, the code actually builds

and things work for the most part and the release is shipped. You open

the package and hear no sound of ax & hammer so you think the

process must have been a smooth and tranquil one. Unfortunately, it

doesn't work that way. And as you already realize, you're one of the

staff members and one of the users. You get to struggle with the Xwindow

issues, compiler issues, and maybe even help writing and refining

requirements or code.

But, come on, you knew this already.

John Sinclair

Dirk Zimoch wrote:

> Why are there always such unnecessary incompatibilities in new versions of

> EPICS? Life would be so much easier if working EPICS software could continue to

> work with later versions (at least of with same major/minor release).

>
> Dirk
>

>

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System