Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

A very pertinent line of discussion and of particular relevance to Diamond.

The Controls Group at Diamond, developing for both accelerator and beamline systems, still support a lot of EDM user interfaces, but with the successful adoption of Python as scripting and application language, a number of us develop solutions using QT. Historically, this has been QT3.3. The EPICS aware widgets were written in C++ and wrapped with a Python interface (using SIP).

More recently, I have started to port older QT3.3 applications to QT4, developing native Python widgets, which plugin directly to QtDesigner.
Some months ago, I had evaluated the Australian Synchrotron's C++ class library (Andrew Rhyder), which is very well written and documented. If we were developing C++ applications, then it would have made sense to have adopted the Australian solution. Timescales and policy have channelled us towards developing native Python QT4 widgets, which are fully supported in QT4 and QtDesigner4. A set of Diamond's EPICS aware widgets were rapidly developed in Python (really quite straightforward), which fully support CA severity status, clipboard copy/paste, etc. Developing synoptics in Designer with these widgets, displays channel access data as soon as a PV name is assigned to a widget, which expedites testing.

Has anyone looked ahead to QT5? Apparently it will be _javascript_ driven, via QML (Qt Meta Language), but still with C++ at its heart.

We would welcome sharing what we have with the community.

Regards,
Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Andrew Johnson

Sent: 21 February 2012 21:42
To: EPICS tech-talk
Subject: QT-based tools: Expressions of interest requested

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
--
Optimization is the process of taking something that works and
replacing it with something that almost works, but costs less.
-- Roger Needham

--
This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential, copyright and or privileged material, and are for the use of the intended addressee only. If you are not the intended addressee or an authorised recipient of the addressee please notify us of receipt by returning the e-mail and do not use, copy, retain, distribute or disclose the information in or attached to the e-mail.
Any opinions expressed within this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily of Diamond Light Source Ltd.
Diamond Light Source Ltd. cannot guarantee that this e-mail or any attachments are free from viruses and we cannot accept liability for any damage which you may sustain as a result of software viruses which may be transmitted in or with the message.
Diamond Light Source Limited (company no. 4375679). Registered in England and Wales with its registered office at Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom