Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

"Szalata, Zenon M." <[email protected]> · Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:12:58 -0700

Thanks Kay,
How do I get the latest "snapshot" of the CSS and BOY software so that I can "build" it here for my use?

I downloaded the CSS package just as I do for EPICS base and any other EPICS extension.  I also followed the instructions to install CSS, just as I do for the rest of the EPICS packages.  In the case of EPICS, if there is an important fix, there is a patch available for it rather soon after the problem is fixed.  I am not aware of similar mechanism for CSS/BOY.  I have been maintaining my own EPICS, extensions, and any support modules that are needed in the group within which I am working (I am part of a small group, called test facilities, and we are somewhat separate from the mainstream of SLAC, which is the LCLS project).  I would like to be able to do that also for CSS, since the rest of SLAC seems presently not interested in CSS/BOY to the point that there could be any help there.  I have looked at the sourceforge Wiki pages and found them not very useful.

You say below, ... capable of downloading EPICS, ... CSS, is no different.
I beg to differ, it is quite different, at least from my point of view.  Of course if you choose to step sufficiently far back, far enough so that the important details become invisible, then sure, they are all the same.  I never had difficulties installing and maintaining all EPICS components.  So, far CSS/BOY is the only one that presently I don't know how to deal with.

Where can I find "useful" instructions for "integrating" my own version of CSS/BOY?
Are there patches available for fixes made and if so where can I find them?

Thanks for helping,
Zen

-----Original Message-----
From: Kasemir, Kay [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 6:01 AM
To: Szalata, Zenon M.; Chen, Xihui
Cc: EPICS tech-talk; Williams Jr., Ernest L.
Subject: Re: o.c.swt.widgets: Improve intensity graph drawing performance by using pixel lookup table.

Hi:

On 9/18/10 24:57 , "Szalata, Zenon M." <[email protected]> wrote:
> ... I know, I could get off my butt and start
> learning all there is to learn about eclipse and java and become my own
> integrator and stop complaining....
In general, people who use EPICS need somebody at the local site capable of
downloading EPICS, compiling it, setting the site-specific preferences, ...
This applies to EPICS base, Striptool, EDM, ....
CSS is no different.
We've been making it easier by providing free access to the sources via
SourceForge; BNL is spearheading an effort to standardize the headless
build; DESY is working on unit tests that are no longer hardcoded to depend
on for example a specific IOC or RDB setup. However, some local butt
movement might always be required.

> In spite of your elaborate argument, quite convincing at that, I am not
> convinced that there is no problem....
There is a problem. Xihui and I have spent several days and emails to
analyze and explain it. On the other hand, we concluded that right now for
us it's not on the top of the things-to-fix list.

There is no blatant memory leak in the BOY Intensity (Image) display.
There is a less than optimal use of memory.
It works for us, and you can also make it work for you by lowering the
update rate or image size.

If we had nothing else to do, we could fix it now by supporting more data
types in the CSS utility.pv layer, which for now generalizes all integer
type arrays into Long arrays, instead of having EPICS-specific
specializations for signed & unsigned 8, 16, 32, 64 bit types, i.e. one
instead of 2*4=8 types.
At the upcoming EPICS meeting, Gabrielle will present the current state of
his PV access library. It is designed to efficiently handle all data types
of every operating system from now until near eternity, and we will adapt
our CSS code to use it instead of wasting time on intermediate fixes that we
don't desperately need right now.

Thanks,
Kay

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System