DAC-Motor Bug Fix

A bug introduced with spec release 5 that caused a segmentation fault when DAC motors were configured has been fixed.

Support for Mclennan PM600 Motor Controller

This spec release includes preliminary support for the Mclennan PM600 motor controller.

Fix For SBS (Bit 3) VME On Linux

A problem, where an unexpected new "feature" in the revision 1.0 SBS Model 1003 driver for Linux prevented spec from working properly with A32 devices has been fixed.

Revised fivec and sixc Geometry Code

The sixc geometry code has been revised to use the current spec conventions of returning an error rather than resetting to command level when a calculation fails. Also, cut points are now available for all geometry motors. The fivec geometry code has been revised quite a bit to use algebra equivalent to that used in the sixc calculations. The revisions do appear to affect the angles calculated for the motors, which brings in to question whether the previous calculations were completely correct. Also, the fivec implementation now allows two mirror-image configurations, just as in the sixc implementation. The setconfig macro selects the configuration.

Now possible To Use NI ENET-GPIB With GPIB PC Cards

It is now possible to use the National Instruments ENET-GPIB simultaneously with the NI AT-GPIB and/or PCI-GPIB cards. The method involves a bit of a hack to get around the name-space conflict that otherwise occurs. See the new makeCIB file in the spec distribution for hacking details.

Fixes For EPICS MCA Record Support

CSS's first opportunity for testing the three-year-old spec support for the EPICS MCA record with real hardware revealed several coding bugs, which are now fixed. CSS looks forward to comments from any users of this code.

Support For Mclennan PM381 Multiplexor

This spec release includes preliminary support for the Mclennan PM381 multiplexor. When the user requests moves by multiple motors connected to the multiplexor, spec automatically sends commands to move each motor in turn.

SBS (Bit 3) VME On Linux Requires New SBS Driver

This release of spec requires the new revision 1.0 of the SBS Model 1003 (non-beta) driver when using the SBS Models 616, 617, 618 and 620 PCI-to-VME adapters. The earlier beta releases of the driver are incompatible with the new driver.

SBS (Bit 3) VME Support Updated

spec's support for the SBS (Bit 3) VME drivers and adapters for Sun, HP and Linux platforms has been updated.

edconf Update

The edconf configuration editor now asks for confirmation when inserting a motor using the i command.

Fix For Kappa-Mode wh Display

A bug in the fourc and fivec kappa-mode geometries, where the motors displayed with wh and similar macros showed non-geometry motors under certain conditions, has been fixed.

Internal Updates

This release includes internal code reorganization that should have no impact on function or behavior.

String Array Enhancements

The functions array_plot(), array_pipe() and array_dump() can now take string-type data arrays as arguments. For these functions, each byte of the string array will be treated as a signed eight-bit integer. Also, the print command now translates unprintable bytes in a string-type data array to backslash-escaped strings. Previously, the raw bytes were output, which could corrupt the text display.

Kappa Support Added To fivec Geometry

The five-circle geometry (fivec) now includes support for the kappa configuration of the diffractometer. The implementation is similar to the kappa variations for the fourc and psic geometries.

New Option For epics_get()

The epics_get() function can now take an optional third argument to specify the number of elements to read into the array named by the second argument. Previously, if the second argument was an array, and the EPICS process variable was an array type, spec would transfer the entire array.

Consistency Fix For psic Macros

The order of the geometry motor arguments for the cuts macro had the nu and mu motors in reverse order from the convention used elsewhere in the psic macros. The order is now consistently nu, then mu.

Small Fix For Energy Macros

The code in the energy.mac macros has been changed to be more precise with respect to decoding the monochromator type from the motor mnemonics. Previously, having both a mono and monu mnemonic with a single-motor monochromator would cause errors.

Support For Mclennan PM301 Motor Controllers

This spec release includes preliminary support for the Mclennan PM301 motor controller.

Fix For XIA DXP Real-Time Value

This version corrects an error in the recently added support for the XIA DXP 4C2X module. The factor-of-two error in the values returned for the "real" and "dead" arguments to the mca_par() function has been fixed.

Bug Fix For Multiple OMS PCI Cards

A bug in the new code to support the OMS PCI motor controller card, where only one card could be detected, has been fixed.

Retry Added For NI GPIB "Not CIC" Error

spec will now automatically perform one retry of operations which were unsuccessful due to a "not CIC" (not controller-in-charge) error for National Instruments GPIB controllers. These errors occur mainly when a second process initializes a connection to the GPIB-ENET (ethernet) controller. Previous behavior on this error was for functions such as gpib_get() or gpib_put() to return -1 on the first try after getting a "not CIC" error.

Several Memory Errors Fixed

Several minor memory access errors uncovered using third-party memory consistency testing software have been fixed. These errors are not known to be associated with any observed spec failures. The memory access problems occurred during initialization of the data group storage, display of help files, removal of cdef-type macros and initialization of the VDL ESRF counter parameters saved in the state file.

Fix For Help Pager Options

An error, where the command line the standard macros assigned to the PAGER variable previously included the -w flag for versions of the less utility greater than 337, has been corrected. That option caused the first line of text after a scroll or new page to be highlighted.

ESRF CCD Updates

This release includes updates to the ESRF CCD support

Bug Fix For Associative Array Scope Declarations

A bug, where in a scope statement such as

global  t1[], t2[], t3[]

that has a list of names that explicitly designates associative array type and only the last name in the series would be made global, has been fixed. The bug also affected such a list following the local keyword.

Bug Fix For eval() Execution

A bug with the evaluation of the commands in an eval() string has been fixed. The problem occurred in the case where the eval() argument contained a curly-bracket delimited statement block that included a macro function that did not use an explicit return. If that macro function was followed by additional statements in the statement block, those subsequent statements didn't get executed.

Bug Fix For eval() Return Values

A bug with the return value of the eval() function has been fixed. In the case where the eval() argument was a macro function, eval() did not return the macro function return value.

Bug Fix For Long Strings

A bug in the spec release 5 rewritten lexical analyzer, where input strings longer than 8K (such as a very long macro definition) might cause a segmentation fault, has been fixed.

Bug Fix For prdef Of Long Macros

A bug from release 5.00.03, where prdef with a macro larger than 8K would cause a segmentation fault, has been fixed.

Bug Fix For OMS PC58

A bug, where the config file information for the Oregon Micro Systems model PC58 motor controller could not be read, has been fixed.

Bug Fix For ACS SPI-8 Fix

The fix in spec release 4.05.10-9 to send the command to enable limit switches had the wrong start character in the command string. The correct start character is now sent.

Initial Support For Delta-Tau PMAC Motor Controller

This release of spec contains preliminary support for the Delta-Tau PMAC motor controller.

More Fixes For ACS SPI-8

The code for the Advanced Control Systems SPI-8 motor controller does better checking on whether replies from the controller are formatted properly. spec also now has a provision for adding small delays during communication with the controller using the motor_par() function. The commands "mdelay", "wdelay" and "rdelay" are used to set delays after sending the move command, before writing a message and before reading a reply, respectively. The default value for "mdelay" is 0.1 sec, while the default values for "wdelay" and "rdelay" are zero. The values for the delays apply to all motor channels associated with all SPI-8 controllers.

New getsval() Function

A new getsval() function is available. This function has the same syntax as the existing getval(), but unlike getval(), which converts octal or hexadecimal input (number strings that begin with 0, 0x or 0X) to the corresponding decimal value, the getsval() function returns the literal string as entered.

Standard Macros Now Use getsval() Where Appropriate

The standard macros have been modified to use the new getsval() function where appropriate, such as for entering file names. Also, all instances of the obsolete getvar macro have been replaced with getval() or getsval().

New clone() Function

A new function named clone() is available to duplicate an existing object. It currently only works for macros. Also, currently a clone of a cdef chained macro becomes an ordinary macro. Usage is clone(dest, src).

Fix For Signal Handling

Signal handling in spec has undergone many changes over the history of the program, as the type of hardware has changed from mostly interrupt-driven to mainly polled, and also as the kernel system calls for handling signals have evolved. Somewhere during these changes, the signal blocking spec did during certain critical code got broke. In particular, typing a ^C to abort motors with some GPIB motor controllers would cause the controller to hang. This version restores proper signal blocking and the problems with ^C should be improved.

Fix For Single Array Element In Binary Array Operations

When two data arrays of different dimension are subject to a binary operator, spec performs the operation on the elements the arrays have in common. That has been true even when one of the arrays was only a single element. With this release, an array or subarray of only one element is treated as a scaler when used with a binary operator and another array.

Release 4 State Files Readable

This version of spec Release 5 can now handle state files from Release 4. Previous versions would force a fresh start. A fresh start is normally recommended, though, in order to read in the new standard macro files.

Better Memory Accounting

The memory accounting displayed with the memstat command has been adjusted to better take into account the overhead used by the C library malloc() routines. Note, though, spec still cannot account for every byte used as overhead by the C library functions, but this release does appear to do a better job at estimating.

Support for OMS PCIx Motor Controller

spec now supports the Oregon Micro Systems PCIx motor controller. Up to eight of these four-motor cards can be used with a PCI bus computer (currently on linux only).

Support For Oriel 18133

spec now has a configuration option for the Oriel 18133 Encoder Mike Controllers over a PC board (ISA) interface.

Fix For ACS SPI-8

The Advanced Control System SPI-8 motor controller has the limit switches disabled by default, and previously spec did not send a command to enable the limits. spec now does send the LE command during hardware initialization to enable limits. The motor_par() option "nolimits" with argument of 0 or 1 will enable or disable limits, respectively, for a particular motor.

New Version Of XIA DXP Vendor Code Required

spec must now be linked with the new version of the XIA vendor libraries to use their DXP digital MCA CAMAC models. However, both the older 4C and the newer 4C2X models are supported. See the dxp help file for details.

Preliminary Support For CAMAC Technoland C-KP 402 Counter

Initial support for the Techonoland Model C-KP-402 fast 8-channel 48-bit CAMAC counter module is included in this spec release.

Old Bug with ESRF TACO MAXE Fixed

An old bug in the code for the ESRF TACO MAXE device server, where a DEVFAULT state in the server would cause spec to core dump or exhibit other anomalous behavior, has been fixed.

MURR Motor Controller Support Expanded

The code to support the motor controllers built and used at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) has been updated to work with very old versions of the motor controller (prior to firmware release 2.30).

Renamed Global Symbol In plotarray.mac

The "last-data-point" symbol in the macro file plotarray.mac is back to being named LDT from its short-lived name LDP. This change is to avoid headaches at ESRF, where the symbol has been named LDT for the last several years. This value of this symbol is the index of the current data point of the current scan in the scan data array SCAN_D. See the plotarray.mac file for details.

Sub-Array Fix For VME and Image Functions

spec now handles all sub-arrays properly for the vme_move(), image_get() and image_put() built-in functions. Previously, certain subarrys, such as a complete row that wasn't the first row, would be interpreted as the first row.

Crash On Usage Errors Fixed

A bug in the initial Release 5 distribution, where using the wrong number of arguments in a built-in spec function resulted in a segmentation fault rather than a usage message, has been fixed.

Fix For Updating Accelerations Parameters

An old bug, where spec did not send a new acceleration parameter to a motor controller when the motor speed was changed using motor_par() for motor controllers where the acceleration parameter is a function of the motor speed, has been fixed.

Fix For ACS SPI-8 Motor Controller

A bug, where the acceleration parameter sent to the Advanced Control System Model SPI-8 motor controller was not calculated correctly, has been fixed.

Delays Available For MM-3000 Motor Controller

The motor_par() options "wdelay" and "rdelay" are now available for the Newport MM-3000 motor controllers. The values for each specify delay times to insert before sending and reading messages, respectively. Presently, they are only used with the GPIB interface. On fast PCs, the communication is too fast for the motor controller to keep up.

INTRODUCTION

New eval() Function

The new eval() function takes as argument a string which contains input for the spec parser. The string is parsed and executed. If the string is an expression, its value is returned. If the string is a statement or statement list, true (nonzero) is returned if there were no errors executing the statement(s) and false (zero) is returned if there was an error. Note, errors encountered during execution of the eval() string do not reset spec to the command level. Instead, the errors simply cause eval() to return an error, allowing execution of the calling statement block to continue.

Switch To C-Library malloc()

spec continually allocates and frees memory - usually in small amounts - while collecting and parsing input and while executing commands. Historically, spec used its own memory allocation routine, as early C library implementations would lead to excessive memory fragmentation. The C library allocation routines are much better these days (particularly, the GNU malloc() routines), and release 5 of spec now uses those.

As a result of the switch in memory allocation, the format of the information printed by the memstat built-in command has changed. spec still keeps track of how it is allocating memory in categories such as parse tree, symbols, macros, etc., but the total allocation statistics are now obtained from the C library. In particular, a "not tracked" value counts memory allocated by non-spec code linked with spec, such as C library functions or other vendor libraries.

On linux platforms, the C library memory allocation has the great advantage that requests for big chunks of memory are allocated using the mmap() system call, which allows the memory to be returned the operating system when freed. Normally, programs only grow in size and can't return memory.

No More lex

The lexical analyzer portion of spec has been coded directly in C to remove spec's dependence on the original UNIX lex utility, and to provide greater flexibility for future code development. Users shouldn't notice any difference in behavior.

Using Modified yacc Parser

spec is now using a customized version of the yacc parser generator to generate a re-entrant parser to accommodate a threaded version of spec. Users shouldn't notice any difference in standard behavior.

fourc and kappa Geometries Combined and Revised

Several changes have been made to the organization and behavior of the four-circle and kappa geometry code. First, the kappa-geometry C code and macros have been merged with the four-circle code and macros. Second, errors in the calculations now cause the calling calc() functions to return an error value of -1 rather than resetting to command level. Third, cut points have been introduced for all the motors associated with the diffractometer. Finally, a variation of the four circle manufactured by Picker (model 3645, perhaps others) where the motions of the chi and phi motors are mechanically linked, is available. See the geo_fourc.c file for details.

Memory Fix For Nested and Recursive Macro Functions

A problem with unbounded memory growth with nested and recursive macro functions has been fixed.

Array Plot Macros Now the Default

Although the file macros/plotarray.mac, which contains new versions of the plotting macros, has been included with the spec distribution for more than a year, not until this release have those macros been installed as the default plotting macros. These new macros define all the standard plotting macros to use data arrays rather than data groups for storing and plotting data. There should be no problems using these macros with the standard scan macros, but users who have developed local macros with direct manipulation of data groups may need to make some changes. If that proves difficult, the old plotting macros that use data groups are included in macros/plot.mac, and can be used instead.