Blu-Ice: Enhanced vs. Original

Large portions of the Blu-Ice GUI have been completely rewritten. Because the internal changes are so significant, we have checked it in as a separate CVS project and have left the "original" blu-ice project in place, only upgrading it enough to communicate with DCS 4.0.

The "enhanced" Blu-Ice version is easier to configure and is designed with the intention of being able to rapidly develop new features. This version has the following advantages:

1. Object Oriented architecture

2. Relies on incr widgets for GUI.

3. Uses the dcsconfig project which allows easier configuration.

4. The application can be started with a desktop type interface that allows a developer to only open widgets of interest.

5. Scans are defined in Blu-Ice and are run in DCSS. This allows other Blu-Ice clients to monitor scans. This functionality is available for motor scans as well as fluorescence and excitation scans.

6. Improved visualitation of 2-d scans.

However, this version currently has the following disadvantages:

1. Incr widgets are slower, so a computer upgrade may be desired.

2. The command prompt is missing, which is a nice feature in the old blu-ice. Hopefully it will make it back with the next release.

3. The fonts and general shape of things are slightly different.