___ _______
                     / -_) __/ _ \ 
Experiment Control   \__/\__/\___/

Experiment Control

eco is a python based control environment for experiments, developed and used at SwissFEL, PSI. It is supposed to be used as

• library of experimental devices for higher level python applications or GUIs
• interactive command line interface from e.g. ipython/jupyter shell or notebook.

Eco follows an object oriented approach to represent devices which can be passed around as a compatibility layer in python, This should facilitate to combine devices in general control and acquisition routines as well as to develop experimental routines which take advantage of the constantly growing landscape of scientific python libraries. Examples for such object representation will follow in the documantation, for object-oriented programing in python also checkout online documentation like this [short introduction]{https://realpython.com/python3-object-oriented-programming/}.

eco Elements

Eco consists in general terms of

1. conventions and examples for the behavior of general objects that allow to use them for different purposes.
2. library modules for broadly used devices using protocols (e.g. epics).
3. library modules for more specific, facility-dependent devices or logical assemblies of devices.
4. scopes of specific configurations of devices and scope-specific code, usable e.g. in interactive mode.

Package Structure

eco consists of a hierachy of mutiple python modules.

At top level should be found:

• utilities (basic and convention helpers)

• basic devices

• examples -- convention checkers -- utilities

• specific types of devices -- general definition of potentially recurring devices

• configurations of multiple devices into instruments

Device representation.pdf

Installation

Anaconda

The eco package is available on anaconda.org and can be installed as follows:

conda install -c paulscherrerinstitute eco

HowTos

Please find in the following some general procedures when adding components in eco according to present conventions. This section can and should be dynamic, and may include outdated hint if not updated for longer.

create new object ind eco

In order to help with naming, aliases, shell representation, new objects should be implemented as derived from elements.Assembly and call the parent init function with the name variable.

from elements.assembly import Assembly
class Myobject(Assembly):
    def __init__(self,name=None):
        super().__init__(name=name)

The Assembly object has different methods that help to assemble different other eco objects together.

# in 
self._append(MySubObject,*args, **kwargs, name='mysubobjname', is_setting=True, is_display=True)

The is_setting flag requires that the appended object is an adjustable (can be set afterwards) or has adjustable settings in case it is itself an assembly. The is_status flag independently determines if the subobject should be used to describe the status of the new assembly, e.g. show up in its representation. In case the subobject is no adjustable itself but has adjustable settings that should be shown in the object status, please use is_display='recursive'.