notes from converting ALPHA-g chronobox frontend fechrono to tmfe c++ framework.

the chronobox device is a timestamp/low resolution tdc/scaler/generic TTL and ECL io
mainboard with an altera DE10_NANO plugin board. it has a cyclone-5 FPGA SOC running Raspbian linux.
FPGA communication is done by avalon-bus memory mapped registers, main data readout
is PIO from an FPGA 32-bit wide FIFO (no DMA yet).

- login to main computer (daq16)
- cd packages
- git clone https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas midas-develop
- cd midas-develop
- make mini ### creates linux-x86_64/{bin,lib}
- ssh agdaq@cb02 ### private network
- cd ~/packages/midas-develop
- make mini ### creates linux-linux-armv7l/{bin/lib}
- cd ~/online/chronobox_software
- cat fechrono.cxx ~/packages/midas-develop/progs/tmfe_example_everything.cxx > fechrono_tmfe.cxx
- edit fechrono_tmfe.cxx:

- rename "FeEverything" to "FeChrono"
- copy contents of frontend_init() to HandleFrontendInit()
- copy contents of frontend_exit() to HandleFrontendExit()
- replace get_frontend_index() with fFe->fFeIndex
- replace "return SUCCESS" with return TMFeOk()
- replace "return !SUCCESS" with return TMFeErrorMessage("boo!!!")
- this frontend has 3 indexed equipments, copy EqEverything 3 times, rename EqEverything to EqCbHist, EqCbms, EqCbFlow
- copy contents of begin_of_run() to EqCbHist::HandleBeginRun()
- copy contents of end_of_run() to EqCbHist::HandleEndRun()
- pause_run(), resume_run() are empty, delete all HandlePauseRun() and all HandleResumeRun()
- frontend_loop() is empty, delete
- poll_event() and interrupt_configure() are empty, delete
- delete all HandleStartAbortRun(), delete all calls to RegisterTransitionStartAbort();
- examine equipment[]:
- "cbhist%02d" - periodic, copy contents of read_cbhist() to EqCbHist::HandlePeriodic()
- "cbms%02d" - polled, copy contents of read_cbms_fifo() to EqCbms::HandlePollRead()
- "cbflow%02d" - periodic, copy contents of read_flow() to EqCbFlow::HandlePeriodic()
- delete unused HandlePoll(), HandlePollRead() and HandlePeriodic()
- replace bk_init32() with "size_t event_size = 100*1024; char* event = (char*)malloc(event_size); ComposeEvent(event, 
event_size); BkInit(event, event_size);"
- replace bk_create(pevent) with BkOpen(event)
- replace bk_close(pevent, ...) with BkClose(event, ...)
- replace "return bk_size(pevent)" with "EqSendEvent(event); free(event);"
- remove unused example SendData()
- if there linker complains about references to "hDB", add "HNDLE hDB" is global scope, add "hDB = fMfe->fDB"
- replace set_equipment_status() with EqSetStatus()
- move equipment configuration from the equipment[] array to the equipment constructors
- remove unused HandleRpc()
- remove unused HandleBeginRun() and unused HandleEndRun()
- remove all example code from HandleInit(), breakup frontend_init() code into per-equipment HandleInit() functions
- EqCbms::HandlePoll() replace all example code with "return true"
- if desired, replace ODB functions from utils.cxx with MVOdb RI(), RD(), etc
- if desired, replace cm_msg() with Msg() and delete "const char* frontend_name"
- update FeChrono() constructor:
      FeSetName("fechrono%02d");
      FeAddEquipment(new EqCbHist("cbhist%02d", __FILE__));
      FeAddEquipment(new EqCbms("cbms%02d", __FILE__));
      FeAddEquipment(new EqCbFlow("cbflow%02d", __FILE__));
- build:
g++ -std=c++11 -Wall -Wuninitialized -g -Ialtera -Dsoc_cv_av -I/home/agdaq/packages/midas-develop/include -
I/home/agdaq/packages/midas-develop/mvodb -c fechrono_tmfe.cxx
g++ -o fechrono_tmfe.exe -std=c++11 -Wall -Wuninitialized -g -Ialtera -Dsoc_cv_av -I/home/agdaq/packages/midas-develop/include 
-I/home/agdaq/packages/midas-develop/mvodb fechrono_tmfe.o utils.o cb.o /home/agdaq/packages/midas-develop/linux-
armv7l/lib/libmidas.a -lm -lz -lutil -lnsl -lpthread -lrt
- run:
- bombs on bm_set_cache_size(), reduce default cache size, old mserver cannot deal with the new default size, set 
fEqConfWriteCacheSize = 100*1024;
- run:
- prints too many messages, comment out print "HandlePollRead!"
- run:
- good now!

success, was not too bad.

also:
- replace gHaveRun with fMfe->fStateRunning
- replace gRunNumber with fMfe->fRunNumber

see tmfe.md section "variables provided by the framework"

K.O.