Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Jane Richards <[email protected]> · Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:26:12 -0800

TRIUMF is very interested in finding a next-generation display manager

as we prepare our new ARIEL project. We have looked at BOY but do not

see it as matching our needs. If we had a QT-based replacement of EDM

that provided the same type of widget configuration, colour rule usage,

and performance, we would buy it at the EPICS price!

We have a large investment in EDM in our ISAC facility and have

developed software that generates a large number of our displays. In

terms of collaborative effort, we can envision developing some

EDM-to-EDMQt conversion application, and EDMQt display auto-generation

tools .

We look forward in joining the upcoming SLAC discussions.

Jane

Control System Studio (CSS) is now 5+ years old and has an excellent and rich
selection of tools for creating GUIs and other programs for interacting with
an EPICS control system. However (there's always a "but" after that kind of
introduction isn't there!) there are sites, systems, programs, places and
people for which Java, Eclipse and/or SWT are not seen as a suitable
environment. This message are not in any way trying to replace or denigrate
CSS, it's about providing an alternative where CSS is not appropriate.

This is a call for expressions of interest in a collaboration to develop tools
and technologies based on the QT toolkit. A number of EPICS users have spoken
about QT (pronounced "cute")as the most obvious replacement for the X11 and
Motif tool-kits used by the old extensions MEDM, EDM, EDD/DM, dm2k, ALH,
StripTool, Probe, Burt, etc. A number of QT-based projects have already been
developed at various sites. If your lab/site/application has GUI needs which
can't be fulfilled using CSS and you are interested in working together using
QT, please respond to this email with what your needs and interests are, and
what resources you might be able to contribute.

I hope to moderate a discussion on this "QT Initiative" at the EPICS meeting
at SLAC in April; all interested parties welcome.

The APS has a long-term need to replace the Motif-based programs MEDM, ALH and
StripTool, which are heavily used by the operators in our control room and by
other staff around the site. John Hammonds and various others have developed
the ADL-to-BOY converter for CSS which is currently in use at one of the APS
beamlines, but we don't believe that all of our current users will be willing
or able to run CSS. We have a developer in our group who has fairly extensive
QT experience, and are particularly interested in the EPICS QT work that has
been developed at the Australian Synchrotron.

- Andrew

--
Jane Richards
ISAC Controls Group Leader, TRIUMF
4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A3
Phone: (604) 222-1047 (ext 7693)
Fax: (604) 222-1074

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System