News: Debian-11; Python scripts in the MacroPath; toPyspMonitor( testAlive = True)

• Debian-11: Esprimo Office PCs require kernel >= 5.0.8 (Debian-11)

  Options:

  • use the 5.0.8 kernel with debian-10, seems possible
  • move to Debian-11, needs testing

  Issues: Python2 and Qt4 not really supported under Debian-11.

  Tests have started.

• Python scripts in the MacroPath not containg Macros are a potential risk. Observation: "My motors start moving when I make AIO".

  When the Macroserver starts, all Python files in the MacroPath directories are imported. This way, Macros are made available. If there are other Python files in the MacroPath, they are also imported.

  Two rules:

  • Python files in the MacroPath should contain Macro code, nothing else.
  • If a user needs to have some other Python script in the MacroPath, the code should be protected against execution during import.

  Bad code:

   
  #!/usr/bin/env python
  #
  # BAD: DoSomething() is executed during imports
  #
  def DoSomething():
      print( "Hello world") 
      return 
  
  DoSomething()
  

  Correct code:

   
  #!/usr/bin/env python
  #
  # Good: DoSomething() is NOT executed during imports
  #
  def DoSomething():
      print( "Hello world") 
      return 
  
  if __name__ == "__main__":
      DoSomething()
  

  Note: SardanaMacroTester.py finds naming conflicts for Macros and scripts not containing 'macro' and not containing __name__.

  Sometimes scientists collect Macros for a user group in a module, say mod1.py. The next user group might require small changes. If mod1.py is copied to mod2.py (which is then changed) the naming conflicts arise. Solution: rename mod1.py to e.g. mod1.py.DateTimeUniKiel.

• toPyspMonitor( ..., testAlive=True): should launch a pyspMonitor, if there is none. Status: testing