EPICS WIN32 Extensions Version 1.

40 (Build 40)
==============================================
The EPICS WIN32 Extensions package contains EPICS extensions
and EPICS base channel access tools that are built to run on WIN32
platforms, that is, Windows 98/2000/XP.
This build of EPICS WIN32 Extensions was made with EPICS Base
R3.14.9, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, and Exceed 7.1. It has been
tested with Exceed 7.1 through Exceed 13, however it should also
run with later versions of Exceed and other PC X servers. Earlier
versions of Exceed are NOT supported.
Other PC X servers and some versions of Exceed may require
setting environment variables DISPLAY, XKEYSYMDB, and XLOCALEDIR.
If you set DISPLAY, you may need to start the X server before
starting the programs. See below for environment variable
information.
If you have problems running the programs, check the Local X
Console window. If it goes away before you can open it, it may be
necessary to set it to not close on last client exit. How to do this
is described below.
This build can be installed to be stand alone. It should then
run with PC X servers other than Exceed, or even with no PC X server
at all (if you display to another machine). Stand alone installation
is the default if exceed is not found by the installer. To make it
stand alone when Exceed is installed, you will need to force the
installation of Exceed redistributable files (an install option).
You musst set DISPLAY, XKEYSYMDB, and XLOCALEDIR and then start your
X server before running the programs. The programs in this build
were not tested with other X servers, but comments would be welcome.
It appears to work with the X-Win32 and Xming X servers.
Bugs and comments may be sent to the author of the extension or
to jba@aps.anl.gov. To be useful, bugs should include explicit steps
that can be used to reproduce the problem.
Setup installs the necessary files in the directory of your
choice, by default in:
c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions
If you have a previous build of EPICS WIN32 Extensions
installed, you must uninstall it before installing this new build.
You can uninstall the EPICS WIN32 Extensions via Add/Remove Programs
in the Control Panel. After uninstalling the earlier version
you should clean up any remaining files in the EPICS WIN32 Extensions
installation directory (by default, c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32
Extensions) and delete the directory before proceeding, since the
directory structure will be changed. If you are asked to reboot
during uninstall, clean up the directory and then rerun this
installation program after rebooting.
Be sure to close any running programs including Exceed, excas
(example CA server), the Local X Console, and caRepeater before
installing or uninstalling. In particular, be sure to close
caRepeater. CaRepeater will not appear on the Task Bar but can be
closed in the Dialog Box obtained from Ctrl-Alt-Delete or the Task
manager in 2000/XP.
For Windows 2000 or XP you need to have administrator privileges
to install the EPICS WIN32 Extensions.
If you change your Exceed version or the location of the Exceed
directory or did not have Exceed installed originally, then you should
do an uninstall and a reinstall of EPICS WIN32 Extensions.

PATH and registry keys

======================
It should not be necessary to have your Exceed directory in your
PATH to run the X programs, as was required in early editions of the
EPICS WIN32 Extensions. By default the Exceed path is stored in
the registry for each program in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppPaths if the installer finds
Exceed installed on your machine. This allows you to run the programs
from Run on the Start Menu or by using the START command (e.g. "start
medm") in a DOS window or command shell. Moreover, it insures you will
get DLLs from the installed directory and from your Exceed directory.
A possible side effect is that the paths in the registry are silently
appended to the front of your path variable when you run the programs.
This means you cannot get different versions of the DLLs by putting
other directories in your PATH. (You should normally not want to do
this anyway.)
If Exceed is not found on your computer or you have unchecked the
"Add Exceed directory to EPICS extensions application paths"
checkbox in the "Installation Options" installation dialog, the AppPaths
registry entry is still created for each program but without the Exceed
path.
If Exceed was not installed when you installed the EPICS WIN32
Extensions but you installed it later, you must reinstall them so the
Exceed path will be in the registry keys.

caRepeater
==========
Most channel access programs require caRepeater to be running and
will try to start it if it is not running. These applications should
be able to find caRepeater without your doing anything special. You
can also start caRepeater yourself from the Start Menu selection or
perhaps by putting it in your StartUp program group.

Exceed Redistributable Files

============================
If you are using Exceed, it is best to use the same version of
Exceed as that used to build the EPICS WIN32 Extensions; however, that
may not be practical. Hummingbird allows the files that are necessary
to run the programs to be included with them, so that the programs
will run with different versions of Exceed and even with other PC X
servers. The tradeoff is that if these files are installed in the
directory with the programs, then you need to set the environment
variable DISPLAY and possibly some others. When DISPLAY is set, the X
programs may no longer start Exceed automatically when you click on a
program icon or otherwise attempt to start the program. You must
start Exceed manually before running the programs.
Even if your Exceed version is different from the Build version,
you should not have to install the Exceed Redistributable files (and
consequently have to set DISPLAY). If you have Exceed but want to run
the programs without Exceed, you will definitely have to install the
redistributable files and define DISPLAY, XKEYSYMDB and XLOCALEDIR. If
you have problems running the programs and your version of Exceed is
different from the build version, you should try installing the
redistributable files.
By default, if you don't have Exceed installed on your machine,
the Exceed redistributable files will be installed into the same
directory as the programs. You will definitely have to define DISPLAY,
XKEYSYMDB, and XLOCALEDIR, and you will have to start an X server
manually before running the programs.
By default the Exceed redistributable files are NOT installed if
Exceed is found on your machine. If Exceed is installed, it is very
probable the programs will work correctly without the Exceed
redistributable files and without DISPLAY and other environment
variables being set - except for Exceed 10. For Exceed 10 you will
need to set DISPLAY and XKEYSYMDB before running the programs.
Alternatively, you may wish to have Exceed redistributable
files installed even if you have the same Exceed version in order
to insure a stand-alone installation or one that will work with
different versions of Exceed or with different X servers. You can
install the redistributable files by checking the "Install Exceed
redistributable files" checkbox on the "Advanced Exceed Options"
dialog during installation.
The behavior of Exceed in regard to DISPLAY and to what files
need to be included has changed several times and is not documented.
It may vary depending on the combination of your Exceed version and
the build version. Setup has been designed to do what is thought to
be the most reasonable thing for the most people. Feel free to
experiment and comment.

Environment Variables
=====================
You may need to define environment variables to run the EPICS
WIN32 Extensions. What you need to set depends on what Exceed version
you have as discussed above. The three environment variables of most
importance are DISPLAY, XKEYSYMDB, and XLOCALEDIR. The commands to
set environmental variables at a command prompt are given. You need
to use the method of setting them permanently that is appropriate for
your version of Windows.
You have to set DISPLAY if the Exceed redistributable files are
in EPICS WIN32 Extensions directory. In other circumstances, if you
have not set DISPLAY and if the programs do not appear when you try
to run them, you should try setting DISPLAY, especially if your Exceed
version differs from the one with which the EPICS WIN32 Extensions
were built. The downside of setting DISPLAY is that local X clients
no longer start Exceed automatically, and Exceed must be started
manually before they are run. (See above.) The situation is the same
as if you were trying to display a client from a remote computer. The
server must be started first. The command to set DISPLAY is:
set DISPLAY=localhost:0
(You can also set DISPLAY to point to another computer if you wish.)
Setting XKEYSYMDB causes Exceed to find the Keysym database in
the EPICS WIN32 Extensions directory. The Exceed redistributable files
do not need to be installed. It may be necessary if you have an earlier
Exceed version, unless you have the Exceed XDK. It will also probably
be necessary if you are not using Exceed. If you cannot type into
the program text entry boxes or your are getting messages about unfound
keysyms, such as osfActivate, set this variable. If the EPICS WIN32
Extensions are in the default location, the command is:
set XKEYSYMDB=c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions\XKeySymDB
Setting XLOCALEDIR causes Exceed to find the locale directory in
the EPICS WIN32 Extensions directory. If you are having problems of
unexplained nature, especially with drag and drop, try setting this
variable. If you are not using Exceed, it will probably be
necessary. The command is:
set XLOCALEDIR=c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions\locale
Set this to locate resource files if you have any:
set XAPPLRESDIR=c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions
or where ever you keep resource files. See the Exceed documentation
for more information.
Set this if you have an Xdefaults file:
set XENVIRONMENT=c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions\Xdefaults
or wherever you keep the Xdefaults file. See the Exceed
documentation for more information.
Set these to log what goes to the Exceed Local Console. See the
Exceed documentation for more information. Use the log for debugging.
The log file will continue to grow if you always have these set:
set LOGGING=YES
set LOGFILE=c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions\exceed.log
You may need to define variables such as EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST to
allow channel access to find your process variables. A description of
these variables is in the Channel Access manual. These can be set in
your AUTOEXEC.BAT (Windows 95/98) or System Properties/Environment for
2000/XP using lines like the following:
set EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST=164.54.188.65
set EPICS_CA_AUTO_ADDR_LIST=NO
It may be convenient to set EPICS_DISPLAY_PATH. This is the path
list that MEDM uses to find ADL files. The paths of directories that
contain ADL files are specified with a semi-colon as a delimiter.
(This is different than on UNIX, where the delimiter is a colon.) See
the MEDM Reference Manual for more information. An example of
how to set this variable is:
set EPICS_DISPLAY_PATH=c:\My Documents\adl;n:\adlsys
If you want to access ADL files that are in a system directory on
UNIX, you can make a link in your UNIX home directory to the system
directory:
ln -s /usr/local/iocapps/adlsys ~/adlsys
then mount that drive on your PC (as n: for example) and put the
directory in the EPICS_DISPLAY_PATH as above.
If you run out of environment space, you need to put something
like the following line in your CONFIG.SYS:
shell=command.com /e:1024 /p
The following an example of a typical setup needed to make the
EPICS WIN32 Extensions run. You can copy these lines to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT or set them in the way appropriate for your version of
Windows and modify them as needed. You probably wont need the
first three variables if you are using Exceed. You must have the
Exceed redistributable files installed for XLOCALEDIR to be useful,
since the locale directory is only installed in that case.

set DISPLAY=localhost:0
set XKEYSYMDB=c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions\XKeysymDB
set XLOCALEDIR=c:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions\Locale
set EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST=164.54.188.65
set EPICS_DISPLAY_PATH=c:\My Documents\adl;n:\adlsys

Winsock 2
=========
The versions of channel access included here require Winsock 2 to
be installed on your system. If you have Windows 2000 or XP, it is
probably already installed. If you have Windows 98, it may not be
installed or a bad version may have been installed. If you have the
file:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ws2_32.dll
on your Windows 95 system, you probably have Winsock 2 installed. You
can look at the Properties of this file and determine the version. It
should be 4.10.1656 or later. There is a bug in widely distributed,
earlier versions of ws2_32.dll. Channel access will not work well
with these earlier versions. You can get a good version of Winsock 2
at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/ws2.htm
If you get an error message about not finding WS2_32.DLL, you do
not have Winsock 2 installed or it is not installed properly.
Exceed
======
The X Windows programs require an X Server to run. The only X
Server supported is Exceed by Hummingbird, http://www.hcl.com. The
WIN32 versions have been built with X and Motif libraries supplied
with the Exceed XDK. You can use the regular version of Exceed to run
the programs. You do not need the XDK version.
It should be possible to use a PC X server other than Exceed.
You will need the Exceed redistributable files and will need to set
environmental variables as discussed above.

Fonts
=====
MEDM uses a set of font aliases that will not be installed with
Exceed by default. See the MEDM reference Manual for several ways to
make these fonts available. If you have Netscape or Internet Explorer
installed, you should be able to view the MEDM Reference Manual via
the Help button in MEDM. Otherwise, the Reference Manual is with the
other EPICS documentation. The location is given below. There is a
sample file, fontTable.adl, in the SupportFiles directory of EPICS
WIN32 Extensions. This will show you what you are getting for the
MEDM fonts.

Programs
========
The EPICS Extensions provided in this release are:
adt.exe (Array Display Tool)
alh.exe (Alarm Handler)
histTool.exe (HistTool)
medm.exe (MEDM)
probe.exe (Probe)
sga.exe (GIF Animator)
StripTool.exe (StripTool)
The EPICS Base command-line channel access tools provided are:
caRepeater.exe (See above)
ca_test.exe
caget.exe
cainfo.exe
camonitor.exe
caput.exe
excas.exe (example CA server)
This release also contains a non-EPICS tool (for X testing):
Chaos (X program that does Mandelbrodt plots)
Documentation for the EPICS programs is the same as for the
UNIX versions and may be found at:
http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/docs
 There is a subdirectory of EPICS WIN32 Extensions named
SupportFiles, not to be confused with the Exceed support files. (The
Exceed support files are in the main directory along with the programs
if they are installed.) It contains some sample ADL files for MEDM,
some GIF files for SGA, configuration files for ADT, and a sample
configuration file for ALH. The icons for MEDM, SGA, and ALH in the
EPICS WIN32 Extensions group initially start these programs in this
directory. You may change that; however, it is suggested that you do
not put your own files in that directory as they may interfere with or
be lost in subsequent installations.
To use printing in MEDM, the print command in Print Setup may be
set to use Ghostview or Exceed's lpr command:
lpr host-name printer-name user-name
e.g. lpr helios mcr2 jones
The printer must be a Postscript printer for lpr to work.
The Plot item in the File menu in ADT requires Sddsplot, which is
available for WIN32 but is not included in this distribution. Unless
Sddsplot is installed, this menu item will not do anything useful.

Troubleshooting
===============
You get dialog boxes saying the program cannot find DLLs that
have names starting with "HC" or "HCL": This should no longer be a
problem. If it happens, try uninstalling, then reinstalling the EPICS
WIN32 Extensions. You can probably fix it by putting the Exceed
directory in your path; however, the Exceed directory should not have
to be put in your path. Be sure Exceed was installed when you
installed the EPICS WIN32 Extensions and has not been moved. See the
discussions above.
You put your Exceed directory in the PATH, but you still get
dialog boxes saying it cannot find the Exceed DLLs: You may have run
out of environment space. Try typing PATH or SET in a DOS window to
see if it is really set right. If you are on Windows 95/98, try
running AUTOEXEC.BAT in a DOS window, and see if it says it is out of
environment space. If so, put a line in your CONFIG.SYS as indicated
above to get more environment space.
The X programs sort of work, but the keys, especially BS, do not
behave properly and errors about keys such as osfActivate appear in
the Exceed Local Console: Set XKEYSYMDB as described above.
Drag and Drop may leave garbage on your screen. This is a
problem in all versions of Exceed. There is currently no fix for it.
You only get a single-sized, default font in MEDM: You probably
need to put the MEDM aliases in your font path or use a font server.
See the discussion above or the MEDM Reference Manual.
You do not get the larger MEDM fonts. You need to be sure the
100 dpi fonts are installed in Exceed or that you are using a font
server that has them.
 You have a problem but you do not know if it is with Exceed,
EPICS, or Windows: try running the non-EPICS extra program Chaos.
There are problems with setup when doing an installation,
reinstallation, or with uninstall: Be sure all programs are closed,
especially Exceed and the Exceed Local Console, and that caRepeater is
killed with Ctrl-Alt-Delete or the Task Manager in 2000 or XP. Try
rerunning the installation.
If you have problems with the Motif programs, check the Exceed
Local Console. It may be necessary to set it to not close on last
client exit under Option. If it does not stay up long enough to do
this, run localcon.exe by itself, by double-clicking on it in
Explorer, for example. It will be in the EPICS WIN32 Extensions
installation directory if the Exceed files are installed, and in the
Exceed installation directory otherwise.
You may have problems specifying paths to files when the paths
contain spaces, such as with the EPICS WIN32 Extensions. It is best
to consult a Windows manual or do some trial and error for this.
Surrounding the whole filename in quotes usually works.
You get scrollbars that are the wrong color, or ADT gives X
Error messages. You need to get the latest patches for Exceed from
Hummingbird.
The uninstallation is not completely successful. If caRepeater,
Exceed, or the Exceed local Console was running, you will need to
restart Windows to finish the uninstall. You may need to manually
delete the EPICS WIN32 Extensions installation directory, by default
at C:\Program Files\EPICS WIN32 Extensions. Some of the programs
create files when they are run, and you may have saved files.
Uninstall does not delete this directory if new files have been
created in it.
If you are getting a black graph area with an "Out of memory!
Try reducing memory size" message when resizing the Graph window
of StripTool try resizing again making the window a tiny bit
larger. The graph will usually reappear.