DRAMA - DRAMA Version Release notes

• Many missing entries to be added after 1.6.3. Hoping to summarized, but includes DRAMA2.
• Version 1.6.3
• Version 1.6
• Version 1.5.2
• Version 1.5.1
• Version 1.5.0
• Version 1.4.2
• Version 1.4.1
• Version 1.4
• Version 1.3
• Version 1.2
• Version 1.1.1
• Version 1.1
• Version 1.0
• Beta 1.0
• Beta 0.6
• Version 0.5
• Version 0.4.2
• Version 0.4
• Version 0.3

Shared Library Linking

Version 1.6.3

Mac OS X architecture selection at dramastart

Selecting compilers

#undef CcCmd
#undef CccCmd
#define CcCmd  /Developer/usr/bin/clang
#define CccCmd /Developer/usr/bin/llvm-g++

imake upgrade

Replacment of "make depend"

SRC1=$(shell ls *.c *.C *.cpp)

AutoTest macro

General

Version 1.6

Starlink support removed

SDS and ARG libraries

SDS Leak checking

IP Interface selection issues

Registrar tasks

forward registrations to machine1 machine2 machine3..

DITS

Action/UFACE waits via transaction ID

ditscmd changes

DTCL changes

Mac OS X Intel support

It is probably not hard to add power pc builds into a FAT build as well, but I haven't bothered as I think they will largely be gone soon and they do compilcate some of the linking.

General changes

Version 1.5.2

I'm afraid I had to make Incompatable changes in the Arg and Sdp C++ interfaces to ensure portability of applications to 64 bit macines.

Support 64 Bit Intel machines running linux (type linux_x86_64).

The standard user interfaces now handle getting of the special parmeters _ALL_ and _NAMES in a more intelligent fashion.

New functions DitsPathToName() (returns of task name from of a path), DitsGetActNameFromIndex() (given an action index, return the action name), DulFitsRead() (implements a Tcl command to read a Fits file into an SDS structure), DulFitsWrite() (implements a Tcl command to write a SDS structure into a FITS file),

There is a new set of C++ interfaces to the GitArg() set of functions. There are in the GitTpl namespace. See C++ Interfaces or $GIT_DIR/gittpl.h for details.

There is a new set of array access methids with the SDS C++ classes.

DJAVA has new RCSID constants in call classes. The Arg Class has a greater range of constructors. DJAVA has been ported to JAVA 1.5, through we don't yet use any of the new features.

DtclTkDialog now trys to be sensible about where it places the dialog when on a dual screen monitor - through it just guesses it is on a dual-screen monitor by looking at the screen size.

You can now override IMP_MAX_TASKS in your local configuration files by defining ImpMaxTasks in your drama_local.cf file. For example

Many of the sub-systems now run test programs during the build - to check that things have been built correctly.

Arg/Sdp C++ Interface changes

The problem will occur if you compile with SDS version r1_4_3_26 or later (Arg is within the SDS library) and DITS version r3_36 or later (Sdp is within the DITS library).

GNU C++ will report a problem of this form:

Version 1.5.1

Many documentation improvements. Links from C++ html pages to C pages now work. Callback routines are now documented throughout.

IMP now supports recording the IMP event log in shared memory, using tasklog on shared. The new taskmon utility can then display the event log from another task while it is running, even if it has hung or (if the shared file hasn't been deleted) crashed.

Added the following new control messages

LOGFLUSH

Flush the log file to disk

LOGINFO

Write the argument as a string to the log file

SDSLEAKCHK

Send this control message to a task to help debug SDS id leaks

Add a new command under VxWorks - reset. This will neatly shutdown DRAMA under VxWorks and then reboot the machine.

Added the new function SdsSetWatch() which allows you to watch events on an SDS Id.

Added the new function DitsGetSelfPath() which allows you easily fetch the path used for a task to send messages to itself.

Added the new function DitsGetDebug() which allows you get the current internal debugging levels as set by DitsSetDebug()

Added the the new function DitsPutForwardMonSetupHandler() which allows you to adjust the path buffer sizes used in a forward monitor connection.

Added the new Wait() and WaitAll methods to DcppHandler. Allows you to wait for events to occur. Also a new DcppHandler constructor was added, taking an argument of type DcppCallbackBase instead of function pointers.

Now supports the use of long long and unsigned long long in GNU compilers to implement the SDS types INT64 and UINT64. Previously this was done using structures containing 2 32bit items. Note that for VxWorks version 5.5 onwards, you should add the following line to you drama_local.cf file.

#define VxWorksDefinesINT64

Add DJAVA DramaTask.CloseTask() (three versions) method - which replaces DramaTask.Close() and allows better handling of exceptions during task shutdown.

Add new DJAVA SdsID class methods SetDebugging(), EnableFreeIDWatch() and ClearFreeIDWatch() which are usefull when you need to debug SDS ID leaks.

The JAVABASE Make macro is now used to set the location of JAVA. Local configuration files can set "JavaBase" to set this value. Default values are set up for MacOsX and Solaris. E.g. to specify JAVA in a different location from the default, edit your drama_local.cf file to add the following lines

#ifdef JavaBase
#undef JavaBase
#define JavaBase 

The cfitsio library is supported by the configuration file. If you have a copy of this library, you can enable its use by DRAMA by adding the following lines to your drama_local.cf file.

#define HasCFITSIO
CFITSIO_INCL=-I/usr/local/include
CFITSIO_LIB=-L/usr/local/lib -lcfitsio

The new command drama_gen_defaultver generates a version file specifying the current defaults versions. The new command drama_rel_cleanup prompts you to delete all releases of sub-systems which are not either the default or in a version file.

Version 1.5.0

Version 1.5.0 represents the version of DRAMA being used on the AAO's new CCD controller software as deployed in March 2004. Additionaly, some bug fixes and improvements and a WIN32 support update have been added (all supplied by Nick Rees at JACH).

The web documentation has, (at long last) been updated, with details for some previously undocumented versions added as well as the 1.5.0 changes. (I'm afraid the latex documentation has not been updated).

This version is expected to be quickly replaced by 1.5.1, but that will only be minor fixes.

Of particular note is that the IMP maximum number of task has been increased from 32 to 48. This means that tasks built with this version are incompatible with older tasks (to a minor extent) and as a result the IMP version number has been increased. You will get warning messages if you try to run tasks with different IMP versions. Note that it is possible to reverse this change before you build DRAMA, if you desire.

Added the following new functions.

DitsMonitorReport()

A function which allows the details of current monitoring operations to be output.

DitsImpRedirect()

Allows the redirection of ImpConnect and ImpNetLocate calls to, for example, force system-widw path handling which can set task locations and path sizes.

DitsPutActEndRoutine()

This function allows you to specify a function to be invoked when an action ends - regardless of why it ends.

DitsFmtReason()

Format a reason code and status into a string

DitsForEachTransaction()

Iterate through the transactions assoicated with an action.

DulMessageWArg()

Send a message and wait for completion. Return the argument associated with the completion message (which is not avaiable from DulMessageW()).

DcppTask::IsDead()

Indicate if the task on the path has died.

DcppTask::IsInitial()

Indicate that we have not yet tried to get a path to the task.

DcppTask::Busy()

Indicate if we are currently getting a path to the task or waiting for a notify operation to complete.

DcppTask::Delete()

Delete the task on the path.

DcppTask::PutDisconnectHandler()

Install a disconnect handler object for a path.

DcppTask::GetDitsPath()

Returns the underlying DitsPathType object assoicated with the DcppTask object.

DcppTask::SetStackSize()

Set the stack size to be used when the task is loaded (VxWorks only).

DcppForgetAll()

Forget all transactions associated with the current action.

SdsFindByName()

Accesses a descendent of a structured Sds item using the descendent's name only.

SdsIsDefined()

Determine if a SDS item is defined.

Added DUMPMON (dump parameter monitor details) and LOGNOTE (write a message to the log file) control messages. It should be noted that if you send a invalid control message to a task, the list of supported control messages it output.

Added support for named arguments to ditscmd and make the -g do a multiple parameter get rather then a signal parameter get (it becomes an alias for -l. Add the -v option which causes any reply values to be output using SdsList().

Add SdpUpdate, DitsLogMsg and DitsLogSysEnabled DTCL commands.

Replace DITS_REA_SIGNAL by DITS_REA_ASTINT through the later remains for compatibility.

The DITS_M_SET_BYTES load flag is now supported throughout - allowing you to set the stack size of a VxWorks tasks.

The Sdp and Arg C++ classes now support std::string in places where char * were used previously. You must define the macro DRAMA_ALLOW_CPP_STDLIB before including Sdp.h for these functions to be defined.

The Sdp C++ class now supports bool types values (Sdp::Get() and Sdp::Put().

The DcppBuffers class now specifies appropiate default values.

The DcppHandler class has been revamped to change the public interface to virtual functions. DcppHandler now catches the object being deleted in the middle of being used an prints a warning.

Added the GitTask class - which wraps up various typical operations used with AAO GIT tasks.

The dramastart command target argument now accepts the special value host - indicating the current host.

The new dnet command will start up the DRAMA networking only if it is not currently running. (Avoiding the error messages that dits_netstart outputs in this case.

SdsList() and sdslist etc. will now list extra data on next line within [].

DJAVA now supports sending messages with a wait, e.g. DramaPath.ControlW(), DramaPath.GetPathW(), DramaPath.GetW(), DramaPath.KickW(), DramaPath.ObeyW(), DramaPath.SetW(). You can now specify a timeout on a DramaSem operation - see DramaSem.SetTimeout(). The default timeout is 30 seconds. Added DramaSem.CheckWeHaveIt() and DramaSem.WeHaveIt() methods.

You can enable the GitLogger in a DJAVA application using DramaTask.GitLogger() and log messages using DramaTask.DramaTask.Log(). The DJAVA documentation has been significantly improved throughout, but please take particular note of the Swing issues on the DJAVA package page. DJAVA is expected to work with JAVA versions 1.2 through to 1.4.

Version 1.4.2

I'm afraid these notes were reconstructed well after the release.

Added dprintenv command to VxWorks commands (those that come with dramastart under VxWorks. The argument is the name of an environment variable to be translated.

Considerable work on DJAVA. In particular, note that it now complains if you do not have the DramaSem semaphore taken when sending a message from UFACE context.

Version 1.4.1

I'm afraid these notes were reconstructed well after the release.

The DRAMA Java Interface - DJAVA is now part of the release. Many changes over the initial release of this sub-system. DJAVA can be used for building GUI's or normal tasks.

Version 1.4

I'm afraid these notes were reconstructed well after the release.

Added DitsPutActStatus and DitsPutArgument commands to DTCL. They are only available when handling an action.

Dropped function DitsArgNoDel as it turned out to be dangerous

Added the following new functions.

DitsSignalByIndexPtr(), DitsSignalByNamePtr() and DitsGetSigArg

These replace the use DitsArgNoDel to pass non-SDS information from interrupt handlers to main-line code.

DitsSetLogSys()

Used to specify functions to be invoked to log the DRAMA internals.

DitsLogMsg()

A general logging function - making use of whatever logging system is available, if any.

DitsPutDefCode()

Allows the code (as returned by DitsGetCode() associated with an action to be changed.

ErsGetTaskId()

Allows the ERS Task ID to be retrived.

ErsSetLogRoutine()

Used to support a change of the logging system for Ers messages.

GitLoggerInit()

Initialise the GitLogger. See the GitLogger class for more details.

Introduced the GitLogger class - a general logging system.

The IMP layer now supports VME backplane shared memory

Added the raw2sds program- for converting simple raw images into SDS image structures

Added the VERSIONS DUMPACTACTIVE and DUMPACTALL control messages.

Version 1.3

I'm afraid these notes were reconstructed well after the release.

The DRAMA start up scripts ($DRAMA/drama.sh and $DRAMA/drama.csh) now automatically source equivalent hidden files in the user's home directories ($HOME/.drama.sh or $HOME/drama.csh).

The DRAMA_VERFILE environment variable is now defined by the dramastart command (Unix version) to the name of the DRAMA version file, if any.

Support for VxWorks on Power PC (targets vwppc and mv2700).

New routines

DitsActIndexByName()

Fetch the action index of any action given't its name.

DitsIsActionActive()

Check if an action is active.

DitsGetEntComplete()

Indicates if a subsidary transaction is complete.

DitsMsgWait()

Wait for, but don't read, the next DRAMA messages.

DulInt series of routines

These functions ( DulIntInit(), DulIntSignal(), DulIntTidy(), DulIntISR()) make is significantly easier to write interrupt service routines and other functions which have traditionally used DitsSignal(), particularly under Vxworks.

DcppHandler::NewThread()

This function replaces the increment operators on a DcppHandler object.

DcppHandler::Obey()

Add versions of this method which return the transaction id already wrapped up in an SDS class.

DcppHandler::Forward()

Add versions of this method which provides a StartedHandler argument.

DcppHandler::SetTimeout()

Allows specifiction of a timeout handler routines.

DcppSpawnKickArg() and DcppSpawnKickArgUpdate()

C++ interfaces to the Dits routines with similar names.

SdsExportDefined(), SdsIsExternal, SdsExternInfo, SdsSizeDefined()

New SDS functions to help work when workign with external SDS structures, particularly when used with Bulk data.

Add new DcppShared class supporting bulk data from the C++ interface.

The DcppMonitor class Monitor() and Forward() methods which accept variable format argument lists now provide a mode which has accepts a list of parameters in a string.

Added the dversion command (Under Unix only). This allows you to select a new DRAMA version without having to restart DRAMA. The argument is a version specification as would normally be accepted by the -v argument to dramastart.

Version 1.2

• You will need to rebuild all applications to use this version of DRAMA due to changes in the IMP layer.
• DTCL now uses TCL's namespaces. All DRAMA commands are now in the drama namespace by default. You can change this to put them in the global namespace by defining the imake macro DtclUseGlobalNamespace in your drama_local.cf configuration file. For alternative ways of selecting this (per login session and per application), see the dtcl manual. It is recommented that all new DTCL programs use namespaces. Note that this only works with Tcl versions from 8.0 onwards.
• DitsLosePath() has been re-implemented in what I believe is the correct way. In some cases, the old implementation was causing the lose of appropiate reschedule events when DitsLosePath was invoked. Since this problem has been fixed, the behavious is somewhat differt.
• The messana command has been reimplemented to give more details about the message code being analyzed. Since the output has changed, any script which analyzes such output needs to be modified.
• Release of libdrama.o under VxWorks modified. We Now don't release lib*.o files for other systems and rely on a gnu ld specific flag in building libdrama.o. This allows us to correctly build in c++ stuff for VxWorks.

• Some additions to the HTML pages. There are new pages on debugging DRAMA itself, some tidbits and a small list of known bugs and wishes. The Installing and building DRAMA page now expands the description of the handling of Unix system configuration problems. The Arg C routine descriptions have been split out of Sds into a separate index page. Likewise the Dui and Sdp routines from Dits
• DRAMA is now ported to Linux.
• Add new routines DulErsInit(), DulErsMessage, DulErsPutRequest(), DulErsAnnul() and DulErsRep(). These routines allow you to control the output of Ers messages by subsidiary tasks.
• The new routine DulLoadFacs() loads message facility tables specified in the environment variable DRAMA_FACILITIES. This provides a way for the standard use interface to automatically load private facility tables. It routine is used by Dtcl and xditscmd.
• A new routine, ArgFind() is equivalent to SdsFind() but provides more extensive error reporting. Please use it instead of SdsFind(). I can make SdsFind() do the same job as it would be incompatible with systems which expect an error and handle it.
• ERS modified to improve it's behavour if a program is in a hard loop reporting errors. You should now always get the first error on stderr.
• DitsSetDebug() now takes mask of debugging levels to set.
• The transaction id scheme now has it's own memory manager. This manager should be far more efficent then malloc/free. It has a slightly higher memory overhead when a small number of transactions are used, improving with more outstanding transactions.
• The DcppTask class routines to send messages now support extra arguments to allow interception of MsgOut() and Ers messages. The use of default arguments allow this to be done without affecting compatibility with existing programs.
• Add new commands DitsLosePath, SdsExtract, SdsDelete, SdsFillArray, SdsGet, SdsGetExtra, SdsInsertCell, SdsNew, SdsPut, SdsPutExtra and SdsResize to Dtcl. Command DitsSetDebug now accepts different argument values.
• The SDSC command now accepts new arguments which allow you to generate a complete C function instead of something which needs to be included within a function. This is neater, but requires more command line options. See the -f, -N and -t options. A new dmakefile macro, SdsIncludeFunction can be used to run SDSC in this mode. In addition, the new -T option to SDSC causes it to output TCL code instead of C. This needs the changes to DTCL above.
• Fix problems in DTCL which required a specific order of setting variables and use of package require DTCL command.
• New functions for the DcppMonitor, being IsInitial(), IsStaring() and IsActive()
• An initial release of DRAMA bulk data transfer support is provides. This facility allows very large amounts of data to be transferred without copying by using shared memory. See the DITS manual for details.

Version 1.1.1

Version 1.1

Version 1.0

This is basically the Beta 1.0 version with the bugs sorted. Considerable work has gone into resource leaks and reconnections after failures with most problems in these areas now elimated.

The documentation is now available in HTML format. A full release of DRAMA will include this in ~drama/html. The entry point it ~drama/html/DramaIntro.frames.html. Alternatively, the documentation is available online at the AAO

The following are the possible compatibility problems you may strike with this version

• The configuration files have been revamped. See the new DRAMA installation notes for more details.
• SdpInit must occur after DitsInit/DitsAppInit.
• If you get a path to yourself with DitsPathGet, you must either handle the resulting transaction or set transid to 0 before calling DitsPathGet. (This applies to any case where you get a path and assuming you already had it don't check the transid and handle a non-null transid. One possible error in this case is DITS-F-NOTIFYWAIT)
• The errors DITS-F-NOTIFYWAIT/ DITS-F-NOTIFY_MSG/ DITS-F-NOTIFY_ERS/ DITS-F-NOTIFY_TRIG may appear where you previosly got DITS-F-NOSPACE, i.e., the receiving task does not have sufficent buffer space. (It actually indicates another thread in your task has hit the same problems but is using DitsRequestNotify to request notification when the buffer is empty, you can do the same thing from your code.
• DitsPutParSys will normally causes a compilation warning about using an integer (SdsIdType) where a pointer is required. You can ignore this or just delete ths line if you are not going to compile under older DRAMA versions as DitsPutParSys is now down by SdpInit.
• Any reference to DitsGetParId() may cause a compilation warning about using a pointer where an SdsIdType is required. Either cast the value of DitsGetParId() to the required type or consider replacing the call with a more appropiate one. (Normally, this concerns calls to ArgGet routines being used to get parameter vlues. Replace these by the equivalent SdpGet routines.
• Calling sequence changes as mentioned in the Beta Version 1.0 notes. These are normally picked up by compilation warnings or errors.
• in dmakefiles you no longer need to explictly mention the GIT and DUL libraries. The standard DRAMA include directory list and DRAMA library set now include GIT and DUL.
• In VxWorks, startup scripts (or whereever you load libraries) although $DITS_LIB/libdits.o still exists, you should consider replacing it by $GIT_LIB/libdrama.o, which includes GIT and DUL. In particular, you will need to do this if you have made the above change to you dmakefile.
• Those of you who got DRAMA V0.6 and have been using the DitsAppInit call should note the change in the call to this (DitsAppInit leaked out in V0.6 before it was finialized).
• The impprobe command (dynamic display of Imp information) has been updated to improve it's display. But is now requires Tk 4.0 or later to run.
• Those of you also upgrading Tcl versions should now that from Tcl version 7.4, Tcl provides a load command which conflicts with the DRAMA load command. You should change instances of the DRAMA load command to DramaLoad. A typical error report in this case is

Error: wrong # args: should be "load fileName ?packageName? ?interp?

Note that if you wish to move your source between this version and a previous versions, consider using the DRAMA_MAJOR_VERSION macro. E.g.

# if (DRAMA_MAJOR_VERSION >= 1) 

    DitsPutDisConnectHandler(disconHandler,0, &oldDiscon,&oldDisconData,status); 

# else 

    DitsPutDisConnectHandler(diconHandler,0,status); 

    oldDiscon = 0; 

# endif 

Other Changes.

• New routine DitsAltInDelete allows you to remove alternative input sources.
• Experimental new debugging support is provided by the routine DitsDumpImp and DitsDumpImpStop. A command, dumpana analyzes the dump. This currently only works when analyzed on a machine with the same byte order and integer sizes as the writer.
• Various Imp fixes incorporated.

Beta Verson 1.0

This version was to test the new CD ROM release system and allow the testing of the 1.0 release.

In bug reports about this version, please quote the contents of the file drama_source/checkpoint.

WARNING! Calling sequence changes - In order to improve general structure, calling sequences of some little used routines have change.

• DitsPutDefaultHandler
• DitsPutDisConnectHandler
• DitsPutConnectHandler
• DitsPutParSys
• DitsAppInit

Inaddition, the defintion of the routine type DitsDitsconnectRoutineType has changed.

These changes should be picked up as compilation warnings when running an ANSI compiler with prototype checking enabled.

Calls to the routine DitsPutParSys can probably be removed as its function is now preformed by SdpInit.

Configuration System.

DramaProgramTarget() macro now includes DUL and GIT libraries, as does The DramaIncl macro. Major update to configuration software now supports local configuration files. See the file local_configs.note.

VxWorks

A complete DRAMA system, libdrama.o, is now available to replace libdits.o. The later did not include Git and Dul where as the former does. libdrama.o is currently found in GIT_LIB but will be moved to a better location in the next release.

Dtcl

A new routine Dtcl_Init is provides for Tcl version 7.6 and later. This allows you to build DTCL into Tcl applications in the normal Tcl way. A sharable library is provided which can be loaded into any Tcl application (Tcl 7.6 and later). Add the following lines to your Tcl pkgIndex.tcl file.

   
package ifneeded Dtcl 1.0 { 
    global env
    if {[lsearch -exact [array names env] DTCL_DEV] != -1} {
        load $env(DTCL_DEV)/libdtcl.so
    } else {
        error "DTCL_DEV environment varaibler not defined, have you started up drama"
    }
}

This will enable the Tcl command

        
package require Dtcl

The VMS versions of Dtcl/Dtk will now output message responses correctly instead of waiting until standard input is processed.

dtcl now supports the -nostdin option, which says that is should not prompt stdin for commands. Likewise, dtk now supports -stdin which indicates is should prompt, event when it had an initailisaction script.

DITS

If DRAMA gets corrupted messages, it will retry a number of times before the task exits (currently fixed at 10 times). Added DitsPutPathData and DitsGetPathData, which allow user data to be assocaited with a path. Integrate new imp and support SYNC messages. Dits will now ensure action completion and error messages are returned to the parent event when its buffer is full by using RequestNotify techniques. We now support a new message type, MGET. This can be used to get the values of multiple parameters. These are handled transparently by the user interfaces (dtcl/xditscmd/ditscmd). Add DitsArgNoDel function which allows Sds structures supplied by DitsSignal calls to be left alone by DRAMA Major revamp of parameter system initialisation. You now don't need to invoke DitsPutParSys. A new routine, DitsAppParamSys (normally invoked by SdpInit()) can be used to get and change parameter system hook routines.

IMP

IMP V1.2 released and integrated.

SDS

New programs. sdsdump allows you to dump parts of an Sds file. sdspoke allows you to change parts of an Sds structure in a file.

Beta Version 0.6

An earily release of what was to become V1.0. It got out due to demand before I realized the changes were significant enough to justify V1.0

SDS.

SDSC (the Sds compiler) now supports structured arrays, and the types INT32, UINT32 INT64 and UINT64. New Sds routine - SdsInsertCell, inserts a cell into a structured array. SdsInsertCell and SdsCell now allow you to treat multidimensional arrays as one dimensional. Sds memory leaks fixed.

IMP

dits_netclose now works quickly. cleanup command now only clean's up scratch files for the current host.

Dits changes

Many of the DitsPut??Handler routines now return the original values. Where there was no client_data item, they simply return the value and no application change is required. Where there was a client_data item, there are now extra arguments to return both the old routine and client_data items. DitsAppInit calling sequence has changed and some new flags have been added. DitsAppInit should now replace DitsInit, which is retained for compatibility reasons. DitsDisconnectRoutineType now has a flags argument. New DitsPathGet routine replaces DitsGetPath, adding new arguments and putting the buffer sizes in a structure. DitsGetPath remains but is implemented in terms of DitsPathGet. DitsPutActions argument structure has changed to provide an action cleanup routine. This is invoked when the task is shutdown or in the case of spawnable actions, when spawned actions complete. Improved error reporting when buffer allocation problem occur but only when local tasks are involved. Currently, buffer allocation problems involving remote tasks cause system errors due to bugs in Imp. Hopefully, this will be fixed in the DitsGetEntInfo/DitsGetEntName now returns the name of the subsidary action when the reschedule reason involves such a transaction. A new DITS_M_REP_MON_LOSS flag to DitsInitiateMessage which tells the monitor system to report monitors lost due to waiting for buffer empty notifications. Action completion messages now try much harder to get though, using the Imp RequestNotify mechanisum. You now cannot set a structured Sdp parameter from outside a task.. A new routine SdpSetReadonly now allows you to make a parameter system readonly. There are now SDP_type codes to replace the use of SDS_type and ARG_type codes. DitsPutParSys is now done as part of SdpInit. This won't cause problems if done as part of the user code, but it is now unnecessary in the use code. Added DitsTaskIsLocal routine

DitsActionWait etc.

Fixed a number of problems in the DitsActionWait/DulGetPathW/DulLoadW stuff. Interfaces to DulLoadW and DulGetPathW changed to incorporate use of DitsPathGet instead of DitsGetPath.

ADITS

This now uses ADAM net 4, instead of ADAM net 3. Use the form

NODE##drama_task

instead of

NODE!!drama_task

when comunincating with DRAMA tasks from ADAM tasks.

In addition, a Drama task name of form task@LOCAL or task@LOCALHOST can be used to refer to a DRAMA task on the local machine, instead of having to know the local machine name.

VMS DRAMA handles lack of ADITS sliently when starting up network.

Dtcl changes.

A host of new commands added to Dtcl. For general operations, the relevent new ones are DitsScanTask/ DitsTaskIsLocal/DitsSetDetails The other additions support adding to actions to the task using Tcl and implemented in Tcl. (DitsPutAction, DitsGetSeq, DitsPutRequest,DitsMsgOut,DitsPutAction, DitsPutObeyHandler, DitsPutKickHandler, DitsGetActIndex, DitsGetEntTransId, DitsGetEntName, DitsMessage, DitsGetPath, DitsLoad,DitsRequestNotify,DitsActionWait) Some new C level functions were also added to support adding Tcl actions from the C level. (DtclPutAction, DtclPutTclObeyHandler, DtclPutTclKickHandler)

C++ interface.

DcppHandler Dcppobject now allows you to wait for multiple threads to complete.

General changes.

We now provide dul_cc/dul_link/dtcl_cc/dtcl_link to help in the building of programs. (dtcl stuff does not actually include Tcl since these routines don't know where it is) Solaris link lines now specify -R to enable finding of sharables at runtime

Version 0.5

The following changes have been made-

1. The C++ interface, Dcpp has been revamped (as per the document I passed around a bit back. SdsId class created and Arg is now derived from it. SdsId is used in all cases where Sds Id's are required, replacing some usage of Arg (This should have no effect on code).
2. An optional OFFSETS item is added to the ImageStructure definition, allowing IMG to find out the offset of an image within a detector.
3. Added DitsScanTasks. This allows you to scan known tasks.
4. Added DitsActionWait, DitsUfaceWait and DitsPutEventWaitRoutine. These are used to allow Obey with wait style programing. Of more interest are the Dul routines based on these - DulMessageW/DulGetPathW and DulLoadW. (DulLoadW does a load and Get Path operation). A basic demonstration of there use is given in the attached "waittest" program.
5. DitsAltInType changed in order to simplify include files, but this should not effect user programs unless the assumed the inclusion of the system include file "sys/types.h" (unix) or "selectLib.h" (VxWorks).

Version 0.4.2

Sds

Added SdsReadFree() which should be used with id returned by SdsRead, instead of using SdsDelete.

Arg/Sdp

ArgCvt now handles 64bit integers correctly. (Note - side-effect, when calling SdpCreate, items of type SDS_INT/SDS_UINT must use type INT32/UINT32 while SDS_I65/SDS_UI64 must use types INT64/UINT64) New routines ArgGeti64/ArgGetu64/ArgPuti64/ArgPutu64 SdpGeti64/SdpGetu64/SdpPuti64/SdpPutu64

Dtcl/Dtk

now supports Tk 4.0. A new Tk photo image type supports Sds images. Dul library provides an addition photo image type which supports Fits images. Added new routine DtclErsRep. Fixed reporting of errors when Tcl scripts are read such that we get full stack dump of error. In addition, DTCL_COMMAND will also return the stack dump of any error.

Dits

Fixed bug where arguments passed using DitsSignal are not deleted. DitsMonitorMsg rejects messages where parameters are not found. Fix bug in Dui stuff where success handler would be called if error handler not supplied, regardless of the status code.

Imp

Ensure Imp fixes reflected in DRAMA copy of Imp code.

Version 0.4

General

Support for Alpha/OSF1 and Solaris 2.0.x

Documentation

The documentation in ~drama/doc has been updated as have the man pages in ~drama/man. Note the man pages are now arranged correctly, with programs in section 1, routines in section 3 and tcl commands in section n. For example, to find each version of SdsList

man 1 sdslist

to get the page on the program sdslist.

man 3 SdsList

to get the page on the routine SdsList.

man n SdsList

to get the page on the Dtcl command SdsList.

Dul

New document. New routines DulFindFile and DulParseFile. These routines implement logical name search paths in a portable maner. These also support wildcarding and defaults. An interesting example is

DulFindFile(tclScript,".:$FGT_DIR:agcalib.tcl",DUL_M_NOWILD,
                        sizeof(filename),0,filename,&status);

which I use in a Dtk based application to find the initial script. tclScript is the user supplied script name. The search path is "." followed by the translaction of the environment variable "FGT_DIR". The default name is "agcalib" and the default filetype "tcl".

The programs "dfindfile" and "dparsefile" can be used in scripts.

New routines which did not make the documentation update support reading a Fits file into an Sds structure (DulFitsRead) and reading a Fits file into a Tk 4.0 photo image widget (DulFitsImageCreate).

Dits

The new routine "DitsRequestNotify" can be used to request notification when the buffers in a target task empty. When doing Forward monitoring, the size of the buffers to the task to which forwarding is being done is now determined from the size of the largest parameter in the initial parameter list. In additon, the last parameter value is always sent (ensuring that user interfaces are up to date)

Dtcl

Commands now set the tcl variable "errorCode" to a list which contains details of the DRAMA status which caused the error. Dtk and Dtcl now accept the flag "-mayload" to allow it to load programs directly. New commands

DtclFindFile

interface to DulFindFile

DtclParseFile

interface to DulParseFile

RequestNotify

interface to DitsRequestNotify

In Dtk, "exit" now invokes the original Tk exit procedures after shutting down Dits. They ensures windows are cleaned up correctly.

Ported to Tk 4.0, Under Tk 4.0, will support putting Sds images using Tk 4.0 photo widget. This will be automatically enabled if compiled with Tk 4.0 include files.

Version 0.3

In additon of a large number of reliability related changes, it contains the following changes. Note, there are quite a number of changes here. AAO specific notes can be found at the bottom.

1. There is a new utility program - messana. This program will display the facility number, message number and severity for message status codes. For example,

messana 0xF3F8012

will return

Message f3f8012 - Facility:1855, Number:2, Severity:2

Likewise for the integer equivalent of 0xF3F8012.

messana 255819794

The intention is to make it easier to lookup message codes. Use the facility number (1855 above) to look up the facility in the PROG bulletin folder.

A new sub-system has been added to DRAMA. The DUL library is intented to contain items which are not part of the core of DRAMA but which should probably be kept with DRAMA. I will probably move some items from DITS and GIT into DUL at some point. At the moment, DUL contains

xditscmd

The X windows DRAMA command interface, moved from DITS.

dcpp

The experimental DRAMA C++ interface. I have a document for this.

And the following utility routines

DulReadFacility(char * filename, StatusType * status) 

Reads a message facility table (_msgt.h) file and dynamically adds the facility to the current program.

DulTranslate(char *instring, int outlen, char * outstring,
                            StatusType * status)

Translate environment variables and logical names in strings using the unix shell style.

Documentation is not yet available for these routines, but feel free to look at the source if you want to use these routines.

2. The XDITSCMD program can now automatically load message facility definition tables (_msgt.h files) on startup. You specify these files using X resources. There a various ways of doing this, but an example is to create a file Xditscmd in your home directory. To automatically log the message tables for DUL and GIT, put a line containing the following in this file.

*facilities: GIT_DIR:Git_Err_msgt.h DUL_DIR:dul_err_msgt.h

In this caes, GIT_DIR and DUL_DIR are environment variables specifing the directories to find the files Git_Err_msgt.h and dul_err_msgt.h in.

3. Dtcl/Dtk supports a new command - "PutFacility". This command allows message facility definition tables to be loaded. PutFacility takes one argument, the name of the definition table file to be loaded. For example

        PutFacility [TranslateName DUL_DIR -file dul_err_msgt.h]
        PutFacility [TranslateName GIT_DIR -file Git_Err_msgt.h]

4. Programs which link against the Dtcl/Dtk libraries must now also link agains DUL, in the same way that you would link against GIT.
5. DtclMainLoop has been replaced by DtclAppMainLoop, and DtclTkMainLoop by DtclAppMainLoop. The old interfaces still exist, but you should modify any code to remove them. The new interfaces support the passing through to Dtcl of the program arguments (argc, argv). This allows these arguments to be passed to the Tcl scripts (in the argc, argv0 and argv variables) and allows Dtcl/Dtk to interpt some arguments (such as -display in the Dtk case) itself.
6. Programs using Dtk will now automatically load the tcl script DTCL_DIR/dtcltk.tcl. This file contains default definitions of two procedures. The first is DtclError, which is invoked automatically by Dtcl to handle background errors (it is the thing which provides stack dumps for Drama errors). The second procedure is DtclTkDialog. This procedure will setup a prompt dialog in in the form of the tk_dialog procedure, but which does not conflict with incomming DRAMA messages. You should change all invocations of tk_dialog to DtclTkDialog to avoid problems. Note that a change in style is required - for the moment, see the source of DTCL_DIR/dtcltk.tcl for details. I will update the Dtcl document soon.
7. Solaris 2 is supported. Alpha/osf1 support comming soon.
8. As part for of the move to support the Alpha, any Sdp routines which used "long int" or "unsigned long int" arguments, not use "INT32" and "UINT32". For example SdpGeti(). The same applies to GitArg routines.
9. You can now add a target to you dmakefile which will help ensure you don't get caught by a mismatch between the current DRAMA target and the target your Makefile was built for. This problem occurs, for example, if you ran dmkmf after doing "dramastart -t vw68k", but then tried to run make after doing a plain "dramastart" command. You generally get heaps of errors.

Add the following line to you dmakefile file

DramaCheckTarget()

I also suggest, that if you have a target "All", you add checktarget as its first target. I.e.

DummyTarget(All, tdfct_err.h tdfct)

becomes

DummyTarget(All, checktarget tdfct_err.h tdfct)

Now if the mismatch occurs, you get a message telling you to rerun dmkmf.

10. Two new utility programs

ditsloadcmd

Loaded programs using DRAMA task loading facilities. The major benefit of this program is the ability to wait until the task is loaded before preceeding.

ditsgetinfo

Return infomation about a task

Click here for the DRAMA home page and here for the AAO home page.