HIERACHIES IN EPICS AND VISUAL DCT
M. Šekoranja, I. List, R. Sabjan, Shambhu Prasad Sah, I. Verstovsek · 2003
Visual DCT [1] (Visual Database Configuration Tool) is becoming the most popular graphical database configuration tool for EPICS [2] databases. EPICS is a widely used control system based on a real-time database configured from text files. The configuration data comes from two types of files - one defines templates and the other instantiates channels from them. The current EPICS template substitution mechanism [3] is restricted in its capabilities and it only allows macros to be passed downwards into a template instance. This limitation makes an EPICS database totally flat, which can result in great difficulties when designing complex applications, not to mention maintaining them. The next release of EPICS will introduce hierarchy support into EPICS core. Instruments will be provided for templates to export fields that are of public interest and thus resembling mechanisms of object-oriented programming. However, this release may still be some time away, while developers need those features now. The present version of Visual DCT therefore has full graphical support for hierarchical features, enabling developers of today to use the technology of tomorrow. VDCT leads the field in advanced features, such as reverse engineering of already existing databases, and user friendliness. It is also the only graphical database configuration tool, which not only supports hierarchies in the EPICS databases now, but also incorporates an integral Database Flattening Tool to produce EPICS databases to be compatible with and executable on current core releases. New development will also introduce debug tools allowing real-time display of channel properties inside Visual DCT, making database debugging much easier.