New XSYS tools to improve the usability of our data acquisition system

1. Most of you rarely if ever modify the user*.h files that control the front end computer. Yet, whenever you sit down at a workstation to begin a run, you have to do a build to recompile the front end code. To address this, there are two new commands:

a. savefront -- This will first ask you for a filename without an extension. It will then add a .hex extension to that name and store the front end code under that filename in your data directory. This is the code that resulted from your last build operation. The file is usually less than 2000 blocks in size, so doesn't take up that much space.

b. loadfront -- This performs the reverse operation. It asks for the filename (again without extension) that you used with savefront then copies that file to the proper download directory on the workstation. It can then be loaded into the front-end by a restart cold or by pushing the red restart button, as usual.

Typically, you would run savefront once after doing a build, then use loadfront at the start of each experiment thereafter that uses the same front end code.

2. If you haven't taken data for some time, you can forget which data directory you are currently using. This results in staring blankly at the screen when the xsys startup dialog asks you to tell it the name of your data directory. If that should happen to you, CTRL-C out of the xsys procedure (or better yet, think of this before typing xsys!) and type

diskquery

This will ask for the label of the disk in the leftmost slot. Don't worry if the disk is mounted or not, the procedure checks for that. It will then give you a complete list of all directories on that disk, one page at a time, with the date they were created. For some groups, this may be a long list, but you should still be able to jog your memory and find the correct data directory.

Contact Kevin Carnes if there are problems with any of these commands.