BLISS shell typing helper

To serve the demand of a simplified syntax when entering commands in the bliss shell (without additional parenthesis and commas compared to ‘spec’) a typing helper has been put in place. It is a tightrope walk to respect:

• only clean python code syntax
• enable users to type commands in similar way as they are used to e.g. in Spec

Typing in the shell

Info

Here, ⏎ represents pressing the Enter key and ␣ represents pressing the space bar.

Lets look at the wm command as an example. Lets say we want to see the position of two motors m0 and m1.

In order for Bliss to be able to interpret the command we need:

$ wm(m0,m1)⏎

in ‘Spec’ one would have typed

$ wm␣m0␣m1⏎

The typing helper will map this way of tying the command to the proper python syntax without having to type ( , , and ) manually. It replaces ␣ by ( or , where appropriate. Further it replaces ⏎ by )⏎ in case this complets the input, or ()⏎ in case a the input reprensts a python callable. E.g.

$ wa⏎

is transformed into

$ wa()⏎

The insertion behaviour of ⏎ is also applied to ;.

Objects info

In order to ease the acces of BLISS objects, a shell typing short-cut has been implemented: if a name of a BLISS object is typed then ⏎ pressd, the return value of __info__() method (if implemented) is printed.

This method is intented to return a string containing information about the object like: name, class, configuration details etc.

This information can be customized for each type of object.

For example, any Axis will display it’s name, controller and state. But additional information can be added case by case.

VSCANNER Example:

DEMO [1]:  sampy⏎
 Out [1]:  axis name: sampy
               state: READY (Axis is READY)
           controller: <bliss.controllers.motors.vscanner.VSCANNER object at 0x7fe0bf0c2fd0>
           ###############################
           Config:
             url=rfc2217://lid213.esrf.fr:28206
             class=VSCANNER
             channel letter:X
           ###############################
           ?ERR: b'OK\r'
           ###############################
           '?INFO' command:
           firmware version   : VSCANNER 01.02
           output voltage     : 0.200001 0.500205
           unit state         : READY
           ###############################
           $
           Max. number of lines: 3276
           Internal time step (microsec.): 50

           Current settings:
              LINE -0.100193 0 1 C
              SCAN 0 0 1 U
              VEL 0.001 0
              LTRIG MASK
              PTRIG MASK
              PIXEL 0 0
              HDELAY 0
           $
           ###############################