An Experiment with Electronic Logs

A. Waller
Fermilab, Batavia IL


The Accelerator Division Controls Console environment at Fermilab has been proprietary since its inception in the early 1970s. Despite recent upgrades, the majority of applications are still written for the proprietary environment. This paper details a bold experiment to break with the console application programming environment. The author details the integration of a Hypercard like product called METACARD for UNIX platforms into the VMS platform based Accelerator Division Controls Console environment. A description of METACARD is given as well as experiences with this utility while producing a user application for electronic logs. A summary of the Electronic Log application is also given. The author concludes with observations on using, integrating, and user acceptance of an application written running under a commercial product with a markedly different user interface.