User Interface (J.Quick)

The user interface will be based on a library of C routines as defined above, together with a high-level observing command language (Tcl is the most likely candidate), and a graphical user interface (Tk is the most likely candidate here). Although Tk/Tcl is well-suited to this task there are some reservations about it as a language¹. For the present time however we assume we will use Tk/Tcl. The C interface will allow programmers to use a typed language and go down to a low-level when and if they need to. The system commands will also be encapsulated as simple commands available in Tcl for writing observing shell scripts or doing interactive observing and/or programming. Tcl will be extended by these commands to implement an ``observer's shell'' (obssh) which will be the main command line interface for simple observing. Astronomers will use obssh and Tk to create graphical user interface for observing programs. In the same manner system programmers will use obssh and Tk to create graphical user interfaces for test programs and system utilities e.g. a generic program for setting up radiometers, a manual drive program etc.

Tasks still to be done :

$\Longrightarrow$

IMPLEMENT THE MANDATORY SYSTEM COMMANDS IN C AND AS EXTENSIONS TO TCL,

$\Longrightarrow$

BUILD GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES FOR BASIC SYSTEM CONFIGURATION TASKS.