ARP Data Acquisition Systems Software Development Guide

1.0: Summary
2.0: Writing Instrument Startup Scripts
3.0: What Programs will you Need to Generate?
4.0: TMC Source Files
5.0: Future Topics

1.0: Summary

This manual includes discussion of arcane issues which I hope are of interest only to fulltime programmers. If subjects listed here become of interest to experimenters, they should probably be reworked for general disemination.

2.0: Writing Instrument Startup Scripts

Instrument startup scripts (e.g. interact, runfile) are one of the last areas of arcane knowledge to be automated. I will jot down some of the issues involved in writing these scripts. Generally a startup script includes some of the following:

        memo
        cmdctrl
        dccc
        scdc
        timerbd
        <collection>
        soldrv
        nav
        lgr
        bfr
        indexer
        <command server>
        <display programs>
        <algorithms>
        <command client (keyboard interface)>

Each of these programs requires a number of command-line options. The order of operations is significant, since certain programs expect other programs to be already present when they are initialized. If program A talks to a program B, program B must be run first, and there must be an intervening namewait call to verify that program B has completed its initialization. The following rules will attempt to define the interrelations.

Every program talks to memo, hence it should come first.

dccc, scdc, soldrv and nav register with cmdctrl, hence it should come before they do. Collection and indexer will register with cmdctrl if it is present, so they should come later also.

Collection will use timerbd if it is present, so collection should come after timerbd.

soldrv, nav, lgr, bfr, indexer, the command server, display programs and algorithms all talk to collection during initialization, so they must start later.

If a .slp format is used, the command server will need to talk to soldrv during initialization also, so the command server must start later.

Display programs and algorithms are generally placed on the bfr rather than directly on the ring to avoid interference with collection, hence bfr should be present and preceed these programs.

Algorithms which start telemetry should be as close to the end of the script as possible to allow any other programs to finish their initialization before the system gets into full swing.

Programs which display data (and any TMC-generated program can, even collection!) may require special handling, particularly if more than one screen is involved.

If the command client is present, it is usually the first of these programs to run in the foreground. When it terminates, it is assumed the entire script should terminate.

3.0: What Programs will you Need to Generate?

In general, you will need to provide programs for Data Acquisition (collection and display), Data Analysis (extraction) and instrument control (command client/server, algorithms). You have considerable latitude as to how these are combined or divided. I will use as an example an experiment known as the Extra Proton detector, for which the acronym "abc" will be used. Throughout this document, wherever the letters abc are used in a filename, you would substitute the acronym for your own experiment. The following is a likely list of executable files required to run abc:

abccol: Collection
abcdisp: Full-screen Display
abcext: Spreadsheet Extraction
abcsrvr: Command Server
abcclt: Command Client
abcalgo: Command Algorithm
abc.dccc: DCCC pin definition file
abc.sft: Compiled Solenoid Cycle definition

Of course your experiment may require more than one display, extraction, algorithm or solenoid definition, but these are the basic pieces we use to run experiments.

4.0: TMC Source Files

Your best bet when defining a new instrument (and the approach I always use) is to refer to the definition of another instrument. The "usual sources" required by TMC consist of the following:

types.tmc: Defines data types and conversions.
abc.tmc: Defines type and rate for each telemetry datum.
abcgrp.tmc: Group definitions if required
abccol.tmc: Definitions specific to collection
abc.fld: .Ref scrdes; screen definition
abc.edf: Spreadsheet extraction definition
abc.tma: .Ref tmcalgo; algorithm
abc.cyc: Solenoid cycle calculation definition

Not all of these files will be required by every experiment. Furthermore, some experiments use other source files, particularly if sources are generated automatically by agenda.

5.0: Future Topics