xfdApp release for EPICS 3.12.2

[mooney@aps.anl.gov (Tim Mooney)]

Dear folks,

I finally finished the new release of xfdApp for EPICS 3.12.2 that I
promised during the recent mini workshop on beamline controls.  It's
available on the Web, via the EPICS software distribution URL
'http:/www.aps.anl.gov/EpicsSoft', in the 'Custom EPICS related
software' section, as xfdApp_1296.tar.gz.  (The full URL is
http://www.aps.anl.gov/xfd/WWW/xfd/Softdist/Welcome.html#Custom_EPICS)


Here's an excerpt from the README:

xfdApp is a directory tree containing custom EPICS software (source
code, EPICS databases, EPICS-client scripts, etc.) intended to support
the commissioning requirements of an x-ray laboratory or
synchrotron-radiation (SR) experiment station.  Several copies of this
application can work together to support the commissioning needs of an
entire SR beamline.  xfdApp is also intended to underly additional
software that is station or beamline specific.  All of the SRI-CAT
beamlines and most of the x-ray laboratories were commissioned with
this software and, thus far, most are operating routinely without
additional software support.

xfdApp includes software developed by the Beamline Controls and
Accelerator Controls groups at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), by
developers in the EPICS collaboration outside of the APS, and by
developers in APS Collaborative Access Teams--notably, Mark Rivers
(CARS).

Note that some of the software in this release of xfdApp is compatible
only with EPICS release 3.12.2, although most will run under 3.12.0.
Little of this software will be directly compatible with EPICS 3.13,
although all of it has been ported to 3.13.0.beta4, and all of it
appears to work.

You should not in general expect successfully to pull isolated pieces
out of this software package and stick them into any previous release
of xfdApp.  You'll probably have better luck building this version of
xfdApp as-is, and then integrating any custom software, databases,
etc.  you may have into it.  If you do pull from here, try to pull
complete sets of related information (source, ascii, database, medm
display, and excerpts from burt request files, autosave/restore request
files, template files and st.cmdmv167).

This file is not intended to be your only source of information on
installing and using xfdApp.  In addition to standard EPICS documentation,
available via 'http://www.aps.anl.gov/aps_overview.html', see also more specific
documentation via 'http://www.aps.anl.gov/xfd/WWW/xfd/bcda/Welcome.html'--
particularly, 'http://www.aps.anl.gov/xfd/WWW/xfd/bcda/eplrn/learn.html'
(a learning system that is currently under development).


Tim Mooney