EPICS : Extensible record and device support.
Although the design of extensible support was not intentionally object oriented, the design does have an object-oriented flavor. Here we discuss the good and bad aspects of using object-oriented ideas. Since the structures generated from a Record Description File contain only data and not methods, they are not similar to Java or C++ classes. Because methods are not present, a clear separation between static and run-time database access is possible. This is a good feature and should be kept. It also allows generation of C structures that can be used by either C or C++ code. The record and device support entry tables are almost like Java interfaces or pure abstract C++ classes. We can state that EPICS databases are defined via a Database Definition Language and an Abstract Interface Definition. The two main shortcomings of the existing implementation are (1) only two interfaces are defined RSETS and DSETS (actually a third called a driver entry table is also defined), and (2) the way hardware links are implemented makes it extremely difficult to support arbitrary bus types and additional hardware configuration information.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31-109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 8887
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ASD/CP-94938; TRN: AH200117%%193
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics '97, Bejing (CN), 11/03/1997--11/07/1997; Other Information: PBD: 18 Nov 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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