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    Reply  10 May 2023, Lukas Gerritzen, Suggestion, Desktop notifications for messages 

Stefan Ritt wrote:

people using Edge/Chrome/Safari/Opera saying "it's not working on my specific browser on version x.y.z". So I'm only willing to add that feature if we are sure it's a standard things working in most environments.



[The API looks pretty standard to me. Firefox, Chrome, Opera have been supporting it for about 9 years, Safari for almost 6. I didn't find out when Edge 14 was released, but they're at version 112 now.

Since browsers don't want to annoy their users, many don't allow websites to ask for permissions without user interaction. So the workflow would be something like: The user has to press a button "please ask for permission", then the browser opens a dialog "do you want to grant this website permission to show notifications?" and only then it works. So I don't think it's an annoying popup-mess, especially since system notifications don't capture the focus and typically vanish after a few seconds. If that feature is hidden behind a button on the config page, it shouldn't lead to surprises. Especially since users can always revoke that permission.
Entry  26 Jul 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Fix, strlcpy and strlcat added to glibc 2.38 
A year ago, these two function were included in glibc. If trying to compile midas with a recent version of
Ubuntu or Fedora, one gets errors like this:
/usr/include/string.h:506:15: error: declaration of ‘size_t strlcpy(char*, const char*, size_t) noexcept’ has a 
different exception specifier
  506 | extern size_t strlcpy (char *__restrict __dest,
      |               ^~~~~~~
In file included from /home/luk/midas/src/midas.cxx:14:
/home/luk/midas/include/midas.h:2190:17: note: from previous declaration ‘size_t strlcpy(char*, const 
char*, size_t)’

My proposed solution is a check in midas.h around line 248:
#if (__GLIBC__ > 2) || (__GLIBC__ == 2 && __GLIBC_MINOR__ >= 38)
#ifndef HAVE_STRLCPY
#define HAVE_STRLCPY 1
#endif
#endif
Entry  31 Jul 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, New history plots: Zooming in on logarithmic y axis does not work as expected 
Using the mouse to click and drag on a logarithmic y axis triggers a zooming behaviour as if the user zoomed in on a linear axis. 

How to reproduce:
Take a plot that ranges from 1e-20 to 100, for example. Click around the middle of the axis and drag the mouse up to about 3/4.

Expected result:
Limit the y axis to the approximate range 1e-10 to 1e-4

Actual result:
The y axis limits are around 50 and 75.


P.S. Is there a way to configure the history plot in a way that values of 0.00 are ignored rather than showing up as 1e-20?
Entry  07 Aug 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, File name bug in csv export 
When I export data from a history plot, I get nonsensical filenames. For example, for data from today, I got "Xenon-Vacuum-20247107-152815-20247107-160032.csv".
The month shouldn't be 71 but rather 08. The problem is that in the code it's generated as
("0" + leftDate.getUTCMonth() + 1).slice(-2)
The first '+' is a string concatenation, and so is the second. It should be an addition though. A possible fix is to add parentheses around the addition:
("0" + (leftDate.getUTCMonth() + 1)).slice(-2)
    Reply  07 Aug 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, File name bug in csv export 
Thanks. I think, mplot.js:1844 should be changed as well, but I haven't tried it with mplot.
Entry  04 Sep 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, Multiple issues with mhist 
Hi,

I am having some trouble with mhist. I suppose that the problems are at least partially due to our specific needs which might exceed what has been tested. For context, in MEG II we have some 10^4 history variables in ~30 different events.

1. mhist -l crashes. After displaying around 7000 lines, I get the following error message:
[mhist,ERROR] [midas.cxx:5949:bm_validate_client_index,ERROR] My client index 10 in buffer 'SYSMSG' 
is invalid: client name '', pid 0 should be my pid 3773321
[mhist,ERROR] [midas.cxx:5952:bm_validate_client_index,ERROR] Maybe this client was removed by a 
timeout. See midas.log. Cannot continue, aborting...
Aborted (core dumped)
Timing the execution shows around 33 seconds before the process is aborted.

I'm not sure if this would actually fix the problem, but while trying to circumvent the issue, I tried the
following:
mhist -e "Xenon" -l
This doesn't seem to be implemented. Listing only the variables of a single event would be nice
regardless of our specific issue.

2. mhist and history files.
We have a directory directory with about 2500 history files (mhf_...dat) for the past 1.5 years. Older
history files are archived in other directories with similar numbers of files. When trying to access them, I
encountered two issues:
It seems like it is not possible to pass a "history directory" as an argument. To dump the history for a full
year in the archive directory, I would need to run mhist many times with -f and then combine all the dumps.

If it really does not work, please consider this a feature request.
Also, even using single files does not work at the moment:
$ mhist -e "Xenon" -v "Det XeTmp 0-0" -t 100000 -s 200101 -p 250101 -f 
/data2/history/2022/mhf_1644698398_20220212_xenon.dat
ID 980316009, Aug 13 19:10:56, size 1851749486
This command was supposed to show me the rough time frame covered in this particular history file. I was
informed that the history files are in the new "FILE" format and mhist might not work with them properly.

tl;dr
  • Bug: mhist -l crashes
  • Bug: mhist -f does not work with "FILE" history format
  • Feature request: mhist -e "Name" -l to only show variables of event "Name"
  • Feature request: Set temporary history dir with a flag

Lukas
    Reply  04 Sep 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, Params not initialized when starting sequencer 
I think I have had similar issues in a custom page, where I wrote values to the ODB and they were not ready when I needed them. If you found a fix to such race conditions, could you maybe share how to properly treat this issue? If the solution reliably works, we could also consider including it in the documentation (midaswiki or example.html).


Zaher Salman wrote:
The issue with the parameters should be fixed now. Please test and let me know if it still happens.
Entry  09 Oct 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Suggestion, odbedit minor quality of life 
I have made two minor quality of life changes to odbedit.
  • cd command: Typing cd without arguments now changes the directory to /, similar to the behaviour of the cd command in Linux sending you to the home directory.
  • Exit behavior: Upon exiting the program with Ctrl+C, a newline character is printed so that the command line starts on an empty line rather than the last line from odbedit.
Here's the diff:
@@ -1668,7 +1668,10 @@ int command_loop(char *host_name, char *exp_name, char *cmd, char *start_dir)

       /* cd */
       else if (param[0][0] == 'c' && param[0][1] == 'd') {
-         compose_name(pwd, param[1], str);
+         if (strlen(param[1]) == 0)
+            strcpy(str, "/");
+         else
+            compose_name(pwd, param[1], str);

          status = db_find_key(hDB, 0, str, &hKey);

@@ -2962,6 +2965,7 @@ void ctrlc_odbedit(INT i)

    cm_disconnect_experiment();

+   printf("\n");
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
 }

Please consider incorporating those changes to odbedit.

Lukas
Entry  23 Oct 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, ODB key picker does not close when creating link / Edit-on-run string box too large Screenshot_2024-10-23_at_11.38.38.png
To reproduce:
In the interactive ODB, click the 🔗 icon to create a link. Next to the target,  click the "..." button to open 
the key picker browser. Then try to close it by either:
- Selecting a key and clicking ok
- Clicking "cancel"
- Clicking the red circle at the top left

Expected result:
The key picker closes

Actual result:
The key picker does not close.

Depending on how you trying to close the picker, the error messages in the debug console differ slightly.

On the red circle:
Uncaught TypeError: dlg is null
    dlgClose http://localhost:8080/controls.js:791
    onclick http://localhost:8080/?cmd=ODB&odb_path=/Test:1

On "ok" or "cancel":
Uncaught TypeError: dlg is null
    dlgMessageDestroy http://localhost:8080/controls.js:828
    pickerButton http://localhost:8080/odbbrowser.js:453
    onclick http://localhost:8080/?cmd=ODB&odb_path=/Test:1


Another more minor visual problem is the edit-on-start dialog. There seems to be no upper bound to the 
size of the text box. In the attached screenshot, ShortString has a maximum length of 32 characters, 
LongString has 255. Both are empty at the time of the screenshot. Maybe, the size should be limited to a 
reasonable width.
Entry  28 Oct 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, Visual glitch in history system Screen_Recording_2024-10-28_at_17.23.57.movScreenshot_2024-10-28_at_17.29.34.png
Today, I encountered the bug shown in the attached video. The value of the plotted curve does not match the mouseover number.

When trying to understand it better, I stopped being able to replicate. Has anyone else observed a similar problem? 
    Reply  28 Oct 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, Visual glitch in history system Screenshot_2024-10-28_at_17.34.26.png
 
Entry  07 Nov 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Suggestion, Stop run and sequencer button 
Due to popular demand among our students, I added a button to the sequencer that stops the run and the sequence. If you find it useful, please consider merging this upstream.
$ git diff sequencer.html
diff --git a/resources/sequencer.html b/resources/sequencer.html
index e7f8a79d..95c7e3d8 100644
--- a/resources/sequencer.html
+++ b/resources/sequencer.html
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@
               <img src="icons/play.svg" title="Start" class="seqbtn Stopped" onclick="startSeq();">
               <img src="icons/debug.svg" title="Debug" class="seqbtn Stopped" onclick="debugSeq();">
               <img src="icons/square.svg" title="Stop" class="seqbtn Running Paused" onclick="stopSeq();">
+              <img src="icons/x-octagon.svg" title="Stop Run and Sequencer immediately" class="seqbtn Running Paused" onclick="stopRunAndSeq();">
               <img src="icons/pause.svg" title="Pause" class="seqbtn Running" onclick="modbset('/Sequencer/Command/Pause script',true);">
               <img src="icons/resume.svg" title="Resume" class="seqbtn Paused" onclick="modbset('/Sequencer/Command/Resume script',true);">
               <img src="icons/step-over.svg" title="Step Over" class="seqbtn Running Paused" onclick="modbset('/Sequencer/Command/Step over',true);">
[gac-megj@pc13513 resources]$ git diff sequencer.js
diff --git a/resources/sequencer.js b/resources/sequencer.js
index cc5398ef..b75c926c 100644
--- a/resources/sequencer.js
+++ b/resources/sequencer.js
@@ -1582,6 +1582,23 @@ function stopSeq() {
    });
 }

+function stopRunAndSeq() {
+   const message = `Are you sure you want to stop the run and sequence?`;
+   dlgConfirm(message,function(resp) {
+      if (resp) {
+         modbset('/Sequencer/Command/Stop immediately',true);
+
+         mjsonrpc_call("cm_transition", {"transition": "TR_STOP"}).then(function (rpc) {
+            if (rpc.result.status !== 1) {
+               throw new Error("Cannot stop run, cm_transition() status " + rpc.result.status + ", see MIDAS messages");
+            }
+         }).catch(function (error) {
+            mjsonrpc_error_alert(error);
+         });
+      }
+   });
+}
+
 // Show or hide parameters table
 function showParTable(varContainer) {
    let e = document.getElementById(varContainer);
Entry  18 Nov 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Suggestion, Comma-separated indices in alarm conditions 
I have the following use case: I would like to check if two elements of an array exceed a certain threshold. 
However, they are not consecutive. Currently, I have to write two alarms, one checking Array[8] and one 
checking Array [10].

It would be nice if we could enter conditions such as "/Path/To/Array[8,10] > 0.5".

I looked into the code of al_evaluate_condition() and it seems very C-style. I know that you have been 
refactoring a lot of code to work with STL strings and their functions. If you find the time to refactor 
alarm.cxx, I ask that you consider adding comma-separated lists as a new feature.

Cheers
Lukas
Entry  17 Dec 2024, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, [History plots] "Jump to current time" resets x range to 7d 
To reproduce:
- Open a history plot, click [-] a few times until the x axis shows more than 7 days.
- Scroll to the past (left)
- Click "Jump to current time" (the triangle)

Expected result:
The upper limit of the x axis is at the current time and the lower range is now - whatever range you had before 
(>7d)

Actual result:
The upper limit is the current time, the lower limit is now - 7d

(The interval seems unchanged if the range was < 7d before clicking "Jump to current time")
Entry  19 Feb 2025, Lukas Gerritzen, Bug Report, Default write cache size for new equipments breaks compatibility with older equipments 
We have a frontend for slow control with a lot of legacy code. I wanted to add a new equipment using the
mdev_mscb class. It seems like the default write cache size is 1000000B now, which produces error
messages like this:
12:51:20.154 2025/02/19 [SC Frontend,ERROR] [mfe.cxx:620:register_equipment,ERROR] Write cache size mismatch for buffer "SYSTEM": equipment "Environment" asked for 0, while eqiupment "LED" asked for 10000000
12:51:20.154 2025/02/19 [SC Frontend,ERROR] [mfe.cxx:620:register_equipment,ERROR] Write cache size mismatch for buffer "SYSTEM": equipment "LED" asked for 10000000, while eqiupment "Xenon" asked for 0

I can manually change the write cache size in /Equipment/LED/Common/Write cache size to 0. However, if I delete the LED tree in the ODB, then I get the same problems again. It would be nice if I could either choose the size as 0 in the frontend code, or if the defaults were compatible with our legacy code.

The commit that made the write cache size configurable seems to be from 2019: https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/commits/3619ecc6ba1d29d74c16aa6571e40920018184c0
Entry  01 Apr 2025, Lukas Gerritzen, Suggestion, Sequencer ODBSET feature requests 
I would like to request the following sequencer features if you find the ideas as sensible as I do:
  • A "Reload File" button
  • Support for patterns in ODBSET, e.g.:
    • ODBSET "/Path/value[1,3,5]", 1
    • ODBSET "/Path/value[1-5,7-9]", 1
    • Arbitrary combinations of the above
  • Support for variable substitution:
    • SET GOODCHANNELS, "1-5,7,9"; ODBSET "/Path/value[$GOODCHANNELS]", 1
    • SET BADCHANNELS, "6,8"; ODBSET "/Path/value[!$BADCHANNELS]", 1
    • ODBSET "/Path/value[0-100, except $BADCHANNELS]", 1

To add some context: I am using the sequencer for a voltage scan of several thousand channels. However, a few dozen of them have shorts, so I cannot simply set all demands to the voltage step. Currently, this is solved with a manually-created ODB file for each individual voltage step, but as you can imagine, this is quite difficult to maintain.


I also encountered a small annoyance in the current workflow of editing sequencer files in the browser:
  • Load a file
  • Double-click it to edit it, acknowledge the "To edit the sequence it must be opened in an editor tab" dialog
  • A new tab opens
  • Edit something, click "Start", acknowledge the "Save and start?" dialog (which pops up even if no changes are made)
  • Run the script
  • Double-click to make more changes -> another tab opens
After a while, many tabs with the same file are open. I understand this may be considered "user error", but perhaps the sequencer could avoid opening redundant tabs for the same file, or prompt before doing so?

Thanks for considering these suggestions!
    Reply  01 Apr 2025, Lukas Gerritzen, Suggestion, Sequencer ODBSET feature requests 
While trying to simplify the existing spaghetti code, I encountered problems with type safety. Compare the following:
SET v, "54"
SET file, "MPPCHV_$v.odb"
ODBLOAD $file
-> successfully loads MPPCHV_54.odb
SET v, "54.2"
SET file, "MPPCHV_$v.odb"
ODBLOAD $file
-> Error reading file "[...]/MPPCHV_54.200000.odb"

The "54.2" appears to be stored as a float rather than a string. Maybe "54" was stored as an integer? I don't know how to verify this in odbedit.

Actually, I would be fine with setting the value as a float, as it allows arithmetic. In that case, I would appreciate something like a SPRINTF function in MSL:
SET v, 54.2
SPRINTF file, "MPPCHV_%f.odb", $v
ODBLOAD $file
Or, maybe a bit more modern, something akin to Python's f-strings
ODBLOAD f"MPPCHV_{v:.1f}.odb"
Entry  14 Oct 2016, Luka Pavelic, Forum, Wiener PCIVME link 
Hello, 
I'm trying to make Wiener PCIVME link work with MIDAS. 
In documentation/VME dirvers/ it's saying: "wevmemm.c PCI/VME Wiener board
supported. (see Wiener PCI)".
Provided link is dead. Does anyone have that file? I would appreciate very very
much if someone could send it to me.

Thank you and best regards, 
L.P.
Entry  30 Apr 2024, Luigi Vigani, Bug Report, Params not initialized when starting sequencer midas_sequencer_ok.pngmidas_sequencer_buggy2.png
Good afternoon,

After updating Midas to the latest develop commit 
(0f5436d901a1dfaf6da2b94e2d87f870e3611cf1) we found out a bug when starting 
sequencer. If we have a simple loop from start value to stop value and step 
size, just printing the value at each iteration, we see everything good (see 
first attachment). Then we included another script though, which contains 
several subroutines we defined for our detector, and we try to run the same 
script. Unfortunately after this the parameters seem uninitialized, and the 
value at each loop does not make sense (see second attachment). Also, sometimes 
when pressing run the set parameter window would pop-up, but sometimes not.

The script is this one:

>>>
COMMENT Test script to check for a specific bug

INCLUDE global_basic_functions

#CALL setup_paths
#CALL generate_DUT_params

PARAM lv_start, "Start of LV", 1.8
PARAM lv_stop, "Stop of LV", 2.1
PARAM lv_step, "Step of LV", 0.02

n_iterations = (($lv_stop - $lv_start)/$lv_step)

MSG "Parameters:"
MSG $lv_start
MSG $lv_stop
MSG $lv_step
MSG $n_iterations

MSG "Start of looping"

LOOP n, $n_iterations
   lv_now = $lv_start + $n * $lv_step
   MSG $lv_now
   WAIT SECONDS, 1
ENDLOOP
<<<

and the only difference comes from commenting the line:

>>>
INCLUDE global_basic_functions
<<<

as global_basic_functions is defined as a LIBRARY and it includes 75 (!) 
subroutines...

Is it possible that when loading a large script it messes up the loading of 
parameters?

Thank you very much,
Regards,
Luigi.
    Reply  03 May 2024, Luigi Vigani, Bug Report, Params not initialized when starting sequencer seq1.PNGseq2.PNGseq3.PNG
It is pretty much the same as Stefan, I attach here the screenshots. Also in my case it works sometimes, and sometimes partially (one or 2 params, like in 
attachment 3).

> Could you please export and send me the /Sequencer ODB tree (or just /Sequencer/Param and /Sequencer/Variables) in both cases while the sequence is running. 
> 
> thanks,
> Zaher
> 
> 
> > Good afternoon,
> > 
> > After updating Midas to the latest develop commit 
> > (0f5436d901a1dfaf6da2b94e2d87f870e3611cf1) we found out a bug when starting 
> > sequencer. If we have a simple loop from start value to stop value and step 
> > size, just printing the value at each iteration, we see everything good (see 
> > first attachment). Then we included another script though, which contains 
> > several subroutines we defined for our detector, and we try to run the same 
> > script. Unfortunately after this the parameters seem uninitialized, and the 
> > value at each loop does not make sense (see second attachment). Also, sometimes 
> > when pressing run the set parameter window would pop-up, but sometimes not.
> > 
> > The script is this one:
> > 
> > >>>
> > COMMENT Test script to check for a specific bug
> > 
> > INCLUDE global_basic_functions
> > 
> > #CALL setup_paths
> > #CALL generate_DUT_params
> > 
> > PARAM lv_start, "Start of LV", 1.8
> > PARAM lv_stop, "Stop of LV", 2.1
> > PARAM lv_step, "Step of LV", 0.02
> > 
> > n_iterations = (($lv_stop - $lv_start)/$lv_step)
> > 
> > MSG "Parameters:"
> > MSG $lv_start
> > MSG $lv_stop
> > MSG $lv_step
> > MSG $n_iterations
> > 
> > MSG "Start of looping"
> > 
> > LOOP n, $n_iterations
> >    lv_now = $lv_start + $n * $lv_step
> >    MSG $lv_now
> >    WAIT SECONDS, 1
> > ENDLOOP
> > <<<
> > 
> > and the only difference comes from commenting the line:
> > 
> > >>>
> > INCLUDE global_basic_functions
> > <<<
> > 
> > as global_basic_functions is defined as a LIBRARY and it includes 75 (!) 
> > subroutines...
> > 
> > Is it possible that when loading a large script it messes up the loading of 
> > parameters?
> > 
> > Thank you very much,
> > Regards,
> > Luigi.
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