Transcript Workstation Structure presentation for MTA

The Pieces of MSM-Workstation
John Murray
George James Software
Goal
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G E O R G E J A M E S
S O F T W A R E
Outline the boundaries between Workstation
components described in the “MSM Product Plan”
from InterSystems Corporation, so that the
consequences of that Product Plan can be better
understood
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The Pieces of MSM-Workstation
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Before proceeding...
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G E O R G E J A M E S
S O F T W A R E
I am not speaking for InterSystems Corporation
Formerly Software Engineer with Micronetics
Europe (4.5 years)
Design, development and roll-out of MSMWorkstation
11 years experience in the “M World”
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The Pieces of MSM-Workstation
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Distributed Components
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The Engine (the DLL)
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G E O R G E J A M E S
S O F T W A R E
Runs M code
Manages access to M databases containing globals and
routines, including network connectivity
Provides system service functions for application use
The Tool (the EXE)
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GUI development environment
Edits routines, globals, windows and other components
Supports interactive GUI debugging of M code
Creates redistributable EXEs that use the engine
The Pieces of MSM-Workstation
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The Engine
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MSMWS002.DLL
Three elements of the engine
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Implementation of X11.1 (M)
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Written in C; source shared with MSM-Server
Implementation of X11.6 (MWAPI)
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Written in C++
Service routines
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G E O R G E J A M E S
S O F T W A R E
Written in M
Auxiliary file, MSMTCP2.DLL, only invoked if
TCP/IP features are used
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The Tool
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MSMWS.EXE
A Workstation-built EXE just like your own
Assembled using a bootstrap process from:
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G E O R G E J A M E S
S O F T W A R E
M routines
M globals
Window definitions (VEX files)
Supporting XCall package, MSMDEV.DLL
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Built from C sources
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The ISC Plan
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G E O R G E J A M E S
S O F T W A R E
Support and tactical enhancements for the M
component of the engine
No support or enhancement for the MWAPI
component of the engine, and no changes “other
than to fix absolutely critical bugs”
Release the source code for the tool, “so that
interested users can enhance it”
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The Pieces of MSM-Workstation
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What does this mean?
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G E O R G E J A M E S
S O F T W A R E
Users of the WS tool will be able to fix/improve it
themselves, or contract with others who offer such
services
ISC support for the M engine should resolve
certain types of problem, and yield improvements
in areas such as connectivity
Consider the MWAPI portion of the engine as
frozen. Develop problem workarounds in your
own code, or in the tool’s window code-generator
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The Pieces of MSM-Workstation
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