Re: Mark IV control software and actions

[hjohnson@pluto.njcc.com (Herbert R Johnson)]

On Tue, 27 Jan 1998 13:12:35 -0800, Chris Albertson <chris@topdog.pas1.logicon.com> wrote:

*>What are the good and bad featuree of other telescope control systems?
*>
*>I am thinking of adding "point and shoot" commands to an existing command
*>interpeter.  I would pick an interpeter that is common enough that you
*>could go to a bookstore and find a book on the script language. It must
*>also allow funtions written in C to be compiled and called from the language. 
*>The plan is to write all the primitives in C then add functions to the
*>command interpeter to referance these C functions.
*>
*>Ideas are:
*>
*>1) Tcl/Tk
*>2) Java
*>3) Anyone think of something else worth looking at?  Lisp?, Forth?
*>
*>--Chris Albertson

I would agree with others that the *script language* should be seperate
from the *command language*, so that those of us who do not care to
learn or to support Java or Tcl or Lisp or Forth can operate the Mark IV
system at a command level or in other ways.

For simple uses or testing, a straightforward command language
or command set would be very convenient. If nothing else, good design
suggests seperating the user-side software from the controlling software.
I suspect a simple command language would parallel
the functions available from a "program library" that would be referenced
by the above-mentioned languages and also C. Anyone who wished to incorporate
Mark IV support within their products or systems - including sites that
already have a local system in use - would want this kind of program-level
access and command-level support.

Herb Johnson

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Herbert R. Johnson                      voice/FAX 609-771-1503 day/nite
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