Main Bullet #1 Main Bullet #2 Main Bullet #3

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1 Main Bullet #1 Main Bullet #2 Main Bullet #3 : a bag of chips or all that? :A highlevelcrossplatformpowerfullyfunapplication andorsmallusefultooldevelopmentlanguage

2 Why? Main Bullet #1 Main Bullet Vas ist #2 das Reasoning? Main Bullet #3

3 History UnixWare/Motif Motif C/C++ on UnixWare My road, started out C/C++ and Motif for GUI s, no free GUI design editor (UnixWare), X-Designer == $$$ verbose! many lines to create something simple which promoted hasty copy/paste/modify code that was not very reusable Not cross platform and after all that, it still looked bad

4 History C++ Builder C++ Builder Was familiar with C++ Builder (Borland) that I had used for a 4 th year design project, fairly cheap for license Pallete of reuseable components (VCL), C++, good documentation, Great! You could use other peoples VCL s but there were issues with Builder versions supporting VCL s from other versions Build environment required the VCL library installed on each computer, so not straightforward having others checkout and compile the project Committing to VCL development meant we would be making a long term commitment, not sure how long Builder would stay around, red flags that this might not be best for the future

5 History C++ Builder Building display app

6 History - Kylix Kylix - C++ Builder for Linux same cheap license, same IDE but Builder Windows VCL code had to be modified to support Linux libraries, so not really tidy as hoped Same issues as C++ Builder on Windows future stability /support of product? build environment (not a big deal but still a hassle) committing to VCL development meant we would be making a long term commitment Prototyped first CMCF data collection app

7 History - Kylix

8 History - Kylix But in the end, it didn t solve the cross platform problem, nor did it look like Borland was going to be supporting it for long.

9 History - Matlab Matlab Introduced to Matlab/AT as the main tool for commissioning (SSRL) Found it quick to deliver tools for AOD, conditioning vacuum, scan injection angle. Achieving more with less Quickly create GUI s using Guide development tool IDE offered integrated editing and debugging, very well documented, Built in: Importing and manipulating data/matrices was trivial Built in data visualization using figures, 2D, 3D Built in support for manipulating all common forms of data, images, video, 1D and 2D arrays, XML, on and on Copy and paste code straight from the help and it worked, seamless

10 History - Matlab It is cross platform, once Matlab is installed, scripts (.mat files) can be executed on any supported platform Spring 2006 on CMCF 1 had most base control finished (EPICS) and there was a need for automated scans to accelerate commissioning of the beam line. Need to deliver quickly Use Matlab with labca to create a simple framework to quickly create/modify scans and visualize data Compiled.mat files into executables for deployment and regular use

11 History - Matlab The good: Scripts were cross platform Easy to write reusable code, if it was in Matlab s path, it found and executed the code. New projects didn t require a completely new build environment Simplified development environment for Checkout project and run Very well documented Use of common data types (images, multi dimensional arrays,etc) meant access to code written by developers in many different disciplines via Matlab website File Exchange. Your problem might already have a solution Used my many in the scientific community

12 History - Matlab The bad: Need Matlab license to run $$ Extra Toolbox s cost money, someone might have written a solution for your problem which might depend on a toolbox that we don t have or don t want to purchase No native callback mechanism, made one using timers and flags Single threaded Also prototyped CMCF data collection app and found that monitoring disk file updates and handling GUI data collection status updates gave impression to the user that the software was confused due to lag Compiling.mat files into executables required the same version of gcc that Matlab had been compiled with Too big to use for small tools that I would want to make

13 Todays current problem 1. Given a project where current state is: 1. Runs on Windows XP 2. MS Visual Studio Uses locally installed NI PCI cards, and 2 ISA cards (8 bit) 4. Existing code is un-managed C and C++, total mix, extremely easy to break while trying to add another feature, or just trying to fix something 5. Developed at a time when Active X Controls were how things were done (ATL/MFC), now its all.net Windows Presentation Foundation which does not support Active X controls natively 6. Measurement Studio used for some data visualization (plotting, buttons) which are active X controls, desirable to remove Measurement Studio visual components 7. Many vender dll s including NI Measurement Studio, for some, support ended years ago 8. Need to write this software so that it can be co-developed and maintained at another lab

14 What would an ideal solution look like? Needs to be open source, easy to get and free Well supported, lots of users so no fear of wasted effort and resources moving forward, leverage knowledge to other projects Easy to develop in, less code, make use of existing code and libraries wherever possible Cross platform, not maintaining multiple OS versions of new software No restrictions on GUI development or visualizing data, 2D, 3D, video Reduce amount of time and energy devoted to the development environment by getting off the MS dependency train (don t get me started) Be as close to how we currently develop on Linux, checkout project and compile/run Familiar to the scientific community, new people find it easier to get up to speed, development shared with BL associates

15 Eclipse, Python, Qt4 Eclipse - IDE Free and cross platform (Win, Mac, Linux) Well documented and supported IDE Integrated editing and debugging with pydev Well known, use with Java, Python, C, C++, no fear of wasted time or resources

16 Eclipse, Python, Qt4 Python High Level Programming language Free and cross platform (Win, Mac, Linux) Well documented and supported, Like GCC python is a standard component that ships with the OS (except windows) Adding modules is done once, once installed all executions of that python interpreter have access to the modules, 100 s /1000 s of modules out there Signal/Slot event processing (like callbacks) Same power as Matlab in terms of data manipulation and visualization because of modules such as numpy, pil, matplotlib, qwtplot, pyopengl. Quick to develop in, less code easy to read, test at the prompt and add it to the file New projects require very little setup (no real build environment) It will be here for quite awhile, large organizations that make use of Python include Google, Yahoo, CERN, NASA and ILM

17 Eclipse, Python, Qt4 Many built in convenience functions for manipulating data and variables Its fun Qt4 Application and UI Framework Free and cross platform (Win, Mac, Linux) Very well documented Looks the same on all platforms (I think) Same language bindings as C++ (if you can do it in C++ you can do it in python) We like it and it has become CLS standard for C++ and now python

18 Python It s interpreted the first time you run the.py file, it is then compiled into byte code (.pyc) file, if no changes it runs the byte code file next time round Once python distro installed all modules that are copied to <pythondist>/lib/site-packages directory are now available to be imported Modules can be run stand alone for testing or called/created by other classes Achieves more with less code

19 Projects Projects: checkdb: Verifies EPICS db files against your dbd files loadparams: Reads a text file of multi column values and writes them out to a serial port. The command format for the string sent out the serial port is defined in the same text file, easy then to configure for any device. adltojson: Convert MEDM files into json objects for Glen s pyedm STXM drivers: 8 dlls, motors, servo control via 8 bit Agilent card (now that s legacy!) NI DAQmx, several people had already created python bindings for it

20 Projects STXM raster scanning and data visualization Built on base classes written by Michel for CMCF (mxdc), converted from GTK to QT4 Plots/2D images through QWT (demo) SYLMAND wire scan data viewer Reused plotting module created for stxm stuff, tweaked a little and gave it to Venkat on the beam line (written and tested on Windows and deployed to Linux)

21 Final Thoughts Best way to find out why is to give it a try, checkout examples etc Linux: /home/beamline/bin/python2.6 Windows: 1 download from for Eclipse, python and Qt4

22 Cocktail Hour Thanks