User:AndrewJohnson/QT Initiative

Subject: QT-based tools: Expressions of interest requested

Control System Studio (CSS) is now n years old and has an excellent and rich selection of tools for creating GUIs and other programs for interacting with an EPICS control system. However (there's always a "but" after that kind of introduction isn't there) there are some systems, times, tools, people and places for which Java does not provide the appropriate basis for writing GUI software. This message is not in any way about trying to replace CSS, it's about providing an alternative to it.

This is a call for expressions of interest in a collaboration to develop tools and technologies based on the QT toolkit, which a number of EPICS users have spoken about as the most obvious replacement for the X11 and Motif toolkits as used by the extensions MEDM, EDM, EDD/DM, dm2k, ALH, StripTool, Probe, Burt, etc. If your lab/site/application has GUI needs which for any reason can't be fulfilled using CSS and you are interested in working together using QT, please respond to this email.

The following paragraph needs more thought, it demands an answer to the question "why can't APS use CSS/BOY to replace MEDM then?"

The APS has an obvious need for replacements for MEDM, ALH and StripTool, which are all heavily used by the operators in our control room and by other staff around the site. John Hammonds and various others have worked hard to develop an ADL-to-BOY converter for CSS users which automates the mechanical conversion process, although the results still have to be checked by a human and minor changes are sometimes necessary for the result to work properly.