Can Use .log Extension For Log Files

Previously, log files (files that recorded all of spec's output) were any files with names that began with the three characters log. Now files ending with the four characters .log, are also used as log files.

Debugging Log Files

A new type of log file is available. If an output file name begins with the characters dlog or ends with the characters .dlog, all of spec's output will be sent to that file, as with normal log files. In addition, if any debugging output is being generated (by assigning a value to the built-in DEBUG variable), the debugging output will only be sent to the dlog file and won't be printed on the screen or sent to any other files.

New Function To Prompt For User Input

A new function named getval() is available for reading values from the keyboard. See the funcs help file for usage information. Macros that use the slightly awkward getvar macro can be rewritten with this new function.

New Random Number Function

A new function named rand() returns random numbers. See the funcs help file for usage information.

New \a Attention Character

A new special character sequence, \a (for attention or audible alert), has been added. This sequence sounds the terminal bell (and appears to be part of the ANSI C grammar).

MCA No Longer Automatically Cleared

spec will no longer clear the LeCroy 2301, 3512 and 3521 MCA modules when counting using tcount() or mcount(). You will have to use the mca_par("clear") function before counting to clear the MCA channels. This change is made to accommodate the needs of some users.

Multiple Processes Can Share GPIB Controller

On System V UNIX operating systems with IPC (inter-process communication), it is now possible to share one National Instruments GPIB controller among multiple versions of spec running on the same computer. In addition, it is also possible to share a single KS 3988 GPIB-to-CAMAC controller among multiple processes. The IPC version of the GPIB controller is selected by the name PC_GPIBPC_L in the config file.

Multiple Versions Of 386/486 NI GPIB Supported

Both the National Instruments PCII and AT-GPIB cards and drivers are now supported within the same binary for 386 systems. The former is chosen using the PC_GPIBPC (or PC_GPIBPC_L) and the latter using PC_GPIBPC2 (or PC_GPIBPC2_L) in the config file. Warning: Selecting the wrong controller type may crash your computer or damage your file system.

Multiple Versions of Sun NI GPIB Supported

Three versions of the National Instruments GPIB drivers are now available for Sun platforms. In the config file, the keywords PC_GPIBPC (or PC_GPIBPC_L) select the SB-GPIB Version 1.3 driver, the keywords PC_GPIBPC2 (or PC_GPIBPC2_L) select the GPIB 1014-1S driver and the keywords PC_GPIBPC3 (or PC_GPIBPC3_L) select the SB-GPIB Version 2.1 driver. Warning: Selecting the wrong controller type may crash your system.

Support For ACS MCB-4 Motor Controller

Preliminary hardware support is available for the Advanced Control System MCB-4 stepping motor controllers over RS-232 and GPIB interfaces.

Support For NSLS MMC32 Motor Controller

Preliminary hardware support is available for the MMC32 stepping motor controller (produced locally at NSLS) over a GPIB interface.

Support For Oriel Encoder Mike 18011 Motor Controller

Preliminary hardware support is available for the Oriel Encoder Mike 18011 controller over an RS-232 interface.

Support For Klinger Motion Master 2000

Preliminary hardware support is available for the Klinger Motion Master 2000 DC and stepper motor controller over a GPIB interface. See the kl2000 help file for more details.

Support For the kappa Geometry

Preliminary support for the kappa diffractometer geometry is included.

Support For ESRF

Support for the distributed computing, VME-based hardware environment of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is now included. A general hardware control function esrf_io() has been added to spec (see the esrf help file) and support for the ESRF motor controllers is available.

Allowing For Slop In E500 Motor Positions

An experimental new feature is available to deal with small discrepancies between the E500 controller and spec. The function motor_par(motor, "slop", steps) sets a threshold value for the selected motor for which spec will automatically use the E500 value as the correct position. A message is printed if such a correction occurs. The values set are saved in the state file.

CHANGED FEATURES

New Definition For the scan_plot Macro

The scan_plot macro is now defined in the standard macros as _plot, which is a newly introduced name. The setplot macro will change the definition of _plot, rather than scan_plot. Local sites that wish to redefine scan_plot no longer need to redefine the setplot macro.

New get_angles Macro

Occurrences of the built-in command getangles in the standard macros have been replaced with the macro get_angles. This new macro contains the getangles command, along with invocation of a new macro named user_getangles. The latter is initially defined as a null macro.

New get_counts Macro

The built-in command getcounts in the standard macros has been replaced with the macro get_counts, which calls getcounts and a new macro named user_getcounts, which is initially defined as a null macro. The purpose of this change is to allow the user to insert code, if necessary, after the call to getcounts either to postprocess the the counter values, or to implement user-level counters. For one particular configuration, the distance of the detector from the sample varies with the cosine of an angle, so user_getcounts is defined to multiply S[DET] by the appropriate factor.

New count_em Macro

A new count_em macro replaces all the code and immediate logic surrounding calls to mcount() and tcount(). Included in count_em are calls to new macros named user_precount and user_postcount. By default, these macros are defined as null macros. They can be given definitions by users for various purposes, including implementation of user-level counters. See the count.mac source file for details.

Orientation Matrix Code Accommodates Six Angles

The maximum number of angles used by the orientation-matrix code to describe each reflection has been increased from five to six, to accommodate the new six-circle geometry.

Increase In the Number Of Data Groups

The number of data groups has been increased from eight to 256. A limit has been placed on the total number of points allowed for all groups. That limit is currently 65,536 points, but can be increased by CSS if requested.

Data Groups Can Be Deleted

Calling data_grp() with the number-of-elements argument set to zero will now delete the group.

Renaming Of Background-Flag Variable

The flag for background subtraction in the macros, defined in the source file plot.mac, has been renamed BG. Previously the name of the flag was PG.

New Measure Macros

The measuretemp macro, called after counting in the _loop macro, has been replaced with two new macros called measure1 and measure2. Initially, measure1 is defined as measuretemp to maintain compatibility with prior usage. Also introduced in the _loop macro is a new measure0 macro that is called before counting. Both measure0 and measure2 are initially defined as null macros.

Macros Work Without A Monitor Counter

The standard scan and counting macros have been modified so that they can still be used if there is no monitor counter configured. Set the global variable MON to -1 if you don't have a monitor counter.

IMPROVED FEATURES

No More Need For So Many Underscores

The initial underscores in the names of many of the local symbols in the standard macros have been removed in order to improve the readability of the macros. The underscores no longer serve a purpose due to the improvements in the functionality of the local keyword.

Improvements To Output File Handling

A number of changes have been made to improve the handling of output files.

1) spec now keeps track of the current working directory when each file is opened. If you exit spec and then restart it from a different directory, the existing output files will be reopened in their correct directories.

2) If you restart spec using an existing state file and there is an output file present in the state file that has disappeared from the file system, spec now prints a warning message. If possible, spec will create a new file using the previous name and directory, though.

3) The on() and open() functions, when used without arguments, now also print the full path name of the files, along with the name by which each was opened.

4) When the close() function is used with an unopened file, spec no longer prints an error message.

5) Previously, if you removed a spec output file while spec still had it open, all subsequent output to the file would be lost until the file was closed, either through the close() function, by exiting and restarting spec or through the fixstate command. spec will now detect when you attempt to write to an open file that has been removed from the file system. spec will print a warning message, close the old file descriptor, create a new version of the file and open that file for writing. As a general rule, it is a bad idea to use any other UNIX utility to change a file currently opened for writing by any program, including spec.

6) The previous versions of the newfile macro opened the data file in a directory named ./data if it existed. A new global variable named DATA_DIR is now used to hold the name of the optional data directory. DATA_DIR is initially set to ./data, so the default behavior is as before.

7) If the file you enter in the newfile macro has the same name as the current data file, but if you have changed directory, the previous file will be closed and a new one opened in the current directory.

8) If the newfile macro can't open the file asked for, the DATAFILE variable is set to "/dev/null".

9) The newfile macro now prints warning messages if the file already exists, if the file exists and doesn't have the #F characters at the start of the file or if the file name given is the same as the current DATAFILE but doesn't exist. This feature uses a program called chk_file, which is installed in the SPECD directory.

Monochromator Support Revamped

The monochromator support has been revamped. All of the functionality is now in macro code. The geo_mono.c module has been eliminated. All of the monochromator macros are in the macro source file macros/energy.mac. One-, three- and four-motor monochromators are supported. The macros automatically detect which type of monochromator is being used based on the motor mnemonics present in the config file. The get_E, set_E and move_E macros have been renamed getE, setE and moveE, respectively. See the new mono help file for details.

CAMAC Info In install_data File

The -C flag to the Install program has been replaced with a line in the install_data file that keeps track of whether or not to include CAMAC support.

Non-Super User Installation

The -S option to the Install program that lets you install spec without being super user as long as you have write permission on all the relevant files has been fixed to work on most, if not all, systems. Previously, the call of the chown UNIX command caused problems on some systems where it was only available to the super user. Now, the -S option disables all calls to chown.

Driver Files Can Be Installed Without Kernel Rebuild

The driver install scripts for the 386 systems now accepts a -n option to indicate not to rebuild the kernel after installing the driver files.

Improvements to surf Geometry Code

The code in geo_surf.c that determines which version of the available surface diffractometer configurations to use based on the configured motor mnemonics has been improved to check that all the necessary mnemonics are present, rather than just looking for one or two of them. Also, the code now does better error checking for mathematical singularities. In addition, the calculations between motor positions and reciprocal space now work correctly in all the available modes.

Improvements To fourc and fivec Code

The fourc and fivec geometry code has a few more checks for unobtainable reflections in the azimuthal modes.

Changes To twoc Internals

The numbering of the Q[] parameters for the twoc geometry has been changed to be consistent with the other geometries. The indices of the LAMBDA, ALPHA and BETA parameters have all been increased by one. Q[2], formerly LAMBDA, is now unused.

Improvements to bug Macro

The bug macro now uses the value of the new global variable MAIL for the name of the mail program to run. The default value is the string mail.

Faster, More Robust High-Res Graphics

The interface code to the high-resolution graphics filters has been rewritten for improved speed and robustness.

X11 Graphics Automatically Brought To Front

The x11filt program will now automatically raise the window to the front each time its contents are changed. This feature can be disabled in your .Xdefaults file by setting the spec.AutoRaise parameter to off.

X11 Graphics Checks For Backing Store

The x11filt code has been fixed to automatically detect whether "backing store" is available. If backing store is requested when it is not available, the code switches automatically to retained pixmap mode.

Am9513 Counting Improved

The code for the Am9513 based counting boards for the PC has been improved. The maximum count has been increased from from 10.9 minutes to 71.5 minutes. When counting to time, the time base resolution (in seconds) is now set according to the following table: