ASD Engineering seminar

[jfm@aps.anl.gov]

I have just seen this talk at the EPICS collaboration meeting and recommend it to anyone interested in 
user interfaces to EPICS systems.

Date: Mon 11/25/02
Time: 10:00 am
Place: B2100

Abeans and CosyBeans: Application framework and Java widgets for EPICS

                   Connecting Abeans and CosyBeans application frameworks to EPICS brings a
                   lot of added value. Abeans provide the building blocks for constructing an
                   object-oriented representation of the control system, delivering the OO
                   hierarchy to EPICS records. Abeans factor out the code that is usually
                   duplicated when applications are written. This code includes several
                   useful services which are otherwise not available with scripting tools
                   like TCL/TK or Python:
                           connection management,
                           logging,
                           exception handling, 
                           configuration,
                           data resource loaders, 
                           authentication,
                           policy management, etc.
                   Abeans are designed to be extensible, so new services are easily added.
                   Abeans also include a simulation that can reproduce both normal operation
                   and errors.

                   CosyBeans include a wide range of control widgets. The widgets are pure
                   Java Beans and can be used as such in any Java visual composition editor,
                   allowing developers to create applications without having to write a
                   single line of code. For more sophisticated applications, a combination of
                   visual composition and manual programming can be used, delivering the
                   application developer both the speed of visual development and the agility
                   of manual coding.

                   Abeans and CosyBeans were developed on the basis of experience gained from
                   several projects in the accelerator (ANKA, DESY, RIKEN) and astronomical
                   community (ALMA). The connection to EPICS was developed in collaboration
                   with SNS.