[Mx-mailing-list] MX 1.3.0 is available

[Bill Lavender]

Versions 1.3.0 of MX, MP, and MxTcl are now available at the MX web site
from the download page

    http://mx.iit.edu/source.html

Please read the changelog below for the changes in this release.

**************** Changelog for MX version 1.3.0 ****************
Version 1.3.0 (08/08/06):
	This version of MX has added support for multiple virtual interval
	timers that are layered on top of a single real interval timer.
	The real interval timer is used to periodically update the state
	of all its dependent virtual timers and to invoke the virtual timer
	event handlers when necessary.  This feature was added to compensate
	for the fact that most operating systems have a fairly small number
	of real interval timers (sometimes only one).

	MX can now successfully be compiled with Microsoft Visual C++
	2005 Express.

	Added interval timer support for BSD style kqueue() timers and 
	Mach-based MacOS X timers using mach_wait_until().

	New MX device drivers have been added:

	    gated_backlash - This pseudomotor arranges for a gate signal
	                   to be generated while a backlash correction
			   is in progress.  The gate signal can be sent
			   to an analog output, digital output, or relay
			   record.  This also required the addition of a
			   new MX_MOTOR field called 'backlash_in_progress'.

	    pulsed_relay - This record is a variant of the generic relay
	                   record that activates the relay for a specified
			   length of time and then automatically deactivates
			   the relay.  The activation time is implemented
			   using software timing, so the actual activation
			   time may be longer than what was requested.

	    xia_dxp_timer - This record is an MCA timer record for XIA DXP
	                   MCAs.  When asked for its "last measurement time",
			   it reports a value stored in the XIA interface
			   record rather than a value stored in the timer
			   record itself.  This change ensures that all
			   MCAs controlled by the same XIA interface will
			   all report the same last measurement time.

	For this version of MX, the example programs that were originally
	distributed as a separate tar file examples.tar.gz have now been
	folded into the main MX distribution in the subdirectory 'examples/'.

	Added support for an MX local server configuration script that runs
	when the server is started and provides for local customization of
	the server's environment.  This script is normally found at the
	location $(MXDIR)/etc/mx_local_config.  If this script is not
	found, then it is ignored.

	The 'aps_gap' pseudomotor driver for Advanced Photon Source insertion
	devices has been updated to use the new nomenclature for EPICS
	insertion device PVs.  Existing PVs such as ID10:GapSet.VAL have
	been renamed to ID10ds:GapSet.VAL.  This change was made by the
	APS to provide for undulator straight sections that have two 
	insertion devices rather than one.  If a sector has two insertion
	devices, the additional one will have a name like ID10us:GapSet.VAL.
	In MX configuration files, use subtypes of 1 (mm), 2 (keV), 
	3 (taper mm), and 4 (taper keV) for the downstream device and values
	of -1, -2, -3, and -4 for the corresponding upstream device if any.

	The 'picomotor' drivers for New Focus Picomotor controllers have
	now been restructured to support multiple controllers at a time.
	They have also been revised to include a command retry loop, since
	there are some situations in which commands can get lost.

	New options have been added to the mx_database.status field.  You
	can now execute commands like the following:

	    mxput server:mx_database.status cpu_type
	        to get a description of the CPU architecture, word size,
		endianess, etc. on the MX server log.

	    mxput server:mx_database.status process_memory
	        to get a description of the current memory usage of the
		process executing the server on the server log.

	    mxput server:mx_database.status system_memory
	        to get a description of the total memory usage of the
		computer that runs the server on the server log.

	MX support for the XIA Xerxes libraries has been changed so that
	calls to dxp_readout_detector_run() only readout the array that
	is being used by the current operation of either reading a spectrum
	or reading a baseline.  This eliminates a bit of unnecessary overhead.
	In addition, the MX XIA Xerxes support now maintains its own flag
	for whether or not a run should be in progress, so that calls to
	mxi_xia_xerxes_stop_run_and_wait() will return immediately unless
	this is the first call to the function since dxp_start_run() was
	invoked.

	Fixed a bug in the MX drivers for the XIA Xerxes and Handel libraries
	that caused a buffer overrun crash if the number of spectrum bins
	reported by the XIA firmware was smaller than the length of the
	spectrum array allocated by MX.

	A new define HAVE_XIA_XERXES has been added to libMx/mxconfig.h
	in addition to the existing HAVE_XIA_HANDEL definition.  The two
	definitions now separately describe whether or not the Xerxes or
	the Handel APIs can be directly called.  This change reflects the
	fact that some recent distributions of Handel do not provide .LIB
	and header files for directly invoking Xerxes functions.

	Revised temporary file handling in the 'xia_xerxes' driver so that
	it uses GetTempPath() and GetTempFileName() to construct the name
	of the temporary modules file.  This means that the temporary
	files are no longer created in the 'C:\' directory, but instead
	are created in a user specific directory.

	The 'network_rs232' driver has been modified to check the version
	of the remote MX server before doing I/O.  Current versions of MX
	use the MXFT_CHAR datatype for 'getchar' and 'putchar', but versions
	of MX prior to MX 1.2.0 used MXFT_INT for this.  The new fix ensures
	that the MX 1.3.0 'network_rs232' driver can talk to RS-232 ports
	controlled by both new and old MX servers.

	Added support for the mx_scanlog_info(), mx_set_scanlog_enable(),
	and mx_get_scanlog_enable() functions.  This allows MX scan progress
	messages to be handled separately from other informational messages.
	This was done for the sake of users that do not want to see the
	scan progress messages, but do want to see other informational 
	messages.  In addition, the 'motor' program now has two new commands,
	namely, 'set scanlog on | off' and 'show scanlog' which are used
	to turn on or off this feature.

	In this version of MX, the old 'motor.shared' executable on Unix-like
	systems has been renamed to 'motor' and the old 'motor' shell script
	has been eliminated.  In addition, the defaults of the new version of
	the 'motor' executable have been changed to match the defaults of the
	old 'motor' shell script.  This change has been done for compatibility
	with Debian's policy discouraging shell script wrappers.  For the
	sake of uniformity, on Win32 and DOS platforms the old 'motorbin.exe'
	program has been renamed to 'motor.exe' and the old 'motor.bat' batch
	file has been eliminated.

	A new set of functions for constructing MX control system filenames
	has been added in 'libMx/mx_cfn.c'.  This set of functions makes it
	easier to ensure that all control system filenames such as database
	names, logfile names, etc. are accessed using standardized directory
	locations.  The actual directory locations are specified in a header
	file called 'libMx/mx_cfn_defaults.h'.  At present, MX can be 
	configured to use one of two standard sets of directory locations.
	The default set uses the traditional pattern of storing all 
	system-wide files in subdirectories of the main $(MXDIR) directory
	where MXDIR defaults to "/opt/mx".  The alternate set is designed
	to be compatible with the Linux Standard Base directory layout as
	is accessed by defining the HAVE_LSB macro at compile time.  The
	original motivation of this addition is to make it easier to build
	Debian packages of MX that conform to Debian standards.  'motor'
	and 'mxserver' have been modified to use these functions when finding
	their configuration files.

	Added a new macro MXP_PLOTGNU_COMMAND for specifying the command
	to be run when displaying two-dimensional plots.  This macro replaces
	the explicit specifications of the command string that were previously
	found in a variety of places in the code.

	Added new mx_print_field_value() and mx_print_field_array() functions
	used to provide a more general mechanism for displaying MX record
	field values in application programs.

	A new function mx_get_cpu_architecture() has been added that returns
	two strings for an architecture type and an architecture subtype 
	that describes the system that MX is running on.  This feature is
	mainly designed for reporting purposes.

	A new function mx_connect_to_mx_server() has been added for the use
	of programs that only intend to do network MX gets and puts with a
	single MX server without explicitly setting up an MX database.  Most
	MX programs should not use this feature and should use a database
	instead.

	Added do-nothing stubs for MXF_PTZ_PAN_POSITION, MXF_PTZ_TILT_POSITION,
	and MXF_PTZ_FOCUS_POSITION for the 'hitachi_kp_d20' pan/tilt/zoom
	driver when invoked by the mx_ptz_get_pan(), mx_ptz_get_tilt(),
	and mx_ptz_get_focus() functions.  In previous versions, such calls
	for Hitachi KP-D20A/B cameras would return an error message.

	Minor updates to the 'pcmotion32' series of drivers for National
	Instruments ValueMotion motor controllers to make sure that they
	compile with this version of MX.  Currently, I do not have access
	to any of these controllers, so that is all I can do at this time.

	Added support on the 'win32' build target for using the DUMA
	malloc debugging package from http://duma.sourceforge.net/ with
	the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler.  DUMA is a fork of the Electric
	Fence debugging package from the Linux/Unix world that has been
	ported to Win32.  It helps find memory overruns by deliberately
	causing an exception when an application program writes beyond the
	end of explicitly allocated buffers.
	
	WARNING: As delivered, DUMA is compiled with the -MLd flag to use
	the single threaded static C runtime library.  MX cannot be compiled
	with the -MLd flag, so you must recompile DUMA with one of the allowed
	flag settings for MX, namely, -MD, -MDd, -MT, or MTd before linking
	DUMA to MX libraries.

	Makefiles for MacOS X have been changed to use 'gcc -dynamiclib'
	when building libraries instead of calling 'libtool' directly.

	Added FreeBSD specific support for getting the Pentium time stamp
	counter frequency in the MX high resolution timer functions in
	'libMx/mx_hrt.c'.

**************** Changelog for MP version 1.3.0 ****************
Version 1.3.0 (08/08/06):
	Added support for the scanlog_info, set_scanlog_enable, and 
	get_scanlog_enable functions.  These allow progress messages
	in MX scans to be turned on or off independently of other
	informational messages.