News: Data reduction meeting; Debian-11; Grafana/InfluxDB on Tango attributes; Python scripts in the MacroPath; toPyspMonitor( testAlive = True); OmsVme58 server 'self moving motors'; EigerDectris arm() in exte mode; TngGui: RecentWrites to temp file; pyspMonitor/pyspViewer

Data reduction meeting, Oct., 21st

Dear colleagues,
we would like to invite you for a meeting about data reduction. This
topic has been discussed since years. However, the new detectors which
have recently been installed are seriously challenging our IT infrastructure.
To cope with this situation our colleagues from the computer center are very
much interested to understand the processes involved and to learn about the
requirements from the experiments. This information would help them to optimize
their services, like data storage, data and meta data management, data
processing and ongoing developments of ASAPO.

Another purpose of this meeting is to raise the general awareness for this
topic. It should stimulate new activities in this area and we should
also understand where progress can be made and what resources are necessary
to make substantial improvements. In addition we should see whether the
possibility exists to join forces creating synergy. We are also interested
to hear which experiments have fundamental problems to reduce their data.

We encourage you to present wishlists, apply brainstorming. Do not
be concerned with technical details at this early stage.

Debian-11: Problem: 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.
Grafana/InfluxDB on Tango attributes: find a suitable update frequency, e.g. beam position sensors need to be read quite often.
Python scripts in the MacroPath not containg Macros are a potential risk. Observations: "My motors start moving when I make AIO" or "My motors start moving when I restart the Macroserver".
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 1: SardanaMacroTester.py finds naming conflicts for Macros and it finds scripts not containing 'macro' and not containing __name__.
Note 2: 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.
OmsVme58 server, self moving motors: the observation has been made at P23, happens rarely, under investigation with Yury Matveyev, related to diffractometer, related stel-0 moves.
Actions: step == 0 will no longer cause a move, RecentWrites extended, new server at P23, testing.
EigerDectris, arm() in exte trigger mode, P21: after arm() somektimes the state changed from ON to OFF (not MOVING). Tests at P21.
TngGui: THe RecentWrites OmsVme58 attribute is now written to a temporary file and an editor is launched.
toPyspMonitor( ..., testAlive=True) fixed: should launch a pyspMonitor, done. Triggered an upgrade of hasyutils.
pyspMonitor, pyspViewer: new scans (GQEs) created by commands (derivative, anti-derivative, yToMinusY) are brought into the foreground (single-select-display).
Triggered an update of pyspectra.