An Object Oriented Approach to Low Level
Instrumentation Control and Support.

Jim Kowalkowski
Argonne National Laboratory
Advanced Photon Source

A common controls requirement is to be able to quickly add support for serial, GPIB, and various data acquisition devices to the control system. The HiDEOS software package is an attempt to satisfy this goal. The package provides a means to easily create and maintain low level device drivers and higher level control tasks. HiDEOS has an object oriented task
model which hides most operating system details, allowing the user to concentrate on operating the device. HiDEOS imposes a message passing system on the user for interprocess communication so existing control systems can easily request information and receive results.