EPICS : Extensible record and device support.

Conference · Tue Nov 18 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:8887

Dalesio, L R; Kraimer, M R

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-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 8887
• Report Number(s): ANL/ASD/CP-94938
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
COMPUTER CODES
CONFIGURATION
DESIGN
IMPLEMENTATION
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
INTERFACES