Re: EMC on a 386 and a remote TkEMC under Win98?

[Fred Proctor <frederick.proctor-at-nist.gov>]

Scott Stephens wants to run the TkEMC on a Windows PC. Here are the
steps to do it, some of which may be confounding you all since the
Windows zip/archive file may be out of date, unclickable, or whatever.

1. Get the EMC up and running on your Linux/RT Linux computer,
controlling your machine.

2. In the .ini file for the EMC on the Linux/RT computer, make sure that
the EMC server is uncommented, e.g.,

; section for external NML server parameters
----------------------------------
[EMCSERVER]

; Platform for NML server, e.g., nonrealtime
PLAT =                  nonrealtime

; Name of NML server, e.g., emcsvr; if not found then none will run
EMCSERVER =             emcsvr

The emcsvr runs on the Linux/RT Linux computer. It opens connections to
the EMC command and status buffers on the Linux/RT Linux computer,
listens for network connections from remote clients (like the TkEMC on a
Windows PC), and acts as a go-between.

3. Get the Windows version of the TkEMC and the emcsh program. These
should be precompiled and zipped up along with a .nml file.

WILL-- can you verify that this is true? If not, zip up these things and
put them on the FTP site.

4. Edit the .nml file, near the top, and put the name of the Linux/RT
Linux computer in the buffers' host name field, e.g.,

# Top-level buffers to EMC
B emcCommand            SHMEM   linuxpc.mydomain       8192    0      
0       1       12 1001 TCP=5005 xdr diag
B emcStatus             SHMEM   linuxpc.mydomain       8192    0      
0       2       12 1002 TCP=5005 xdr diag
B emcError              SHMEM   linuxpc.mydomain       8192    0      
0       3       12 1003 TCP=5005 xdr diag queue

There are three entries, which I've put as "linuxpc.mydomain" in this
example. This tells the TkEMC, which will be running on a Windows box,
where to look for the EMC.

5. Edit the .nml file again, near the bottom, and make sure that the
"xemc" process is connecting remotely, using the REMOTE access keyword,
e.g.,

P xemc          emcCommand      REMOTE	localhost       W       0      
10.0    0       10
P xemc          emcStatus       REMOTE	localhost       R       0      
10.0    0       10
P xemc          emcError        REMOTE	localhost       R       0      
10.0    0       10
P xemc          toolCmd         REMOTE	localhost       W       0      
10.0    0       10
P xemc          toolSts         REMOTE	localhost       R       0      
10.0    0       10

You can leave "localhost" alone. This is the name of the Windows PC, but
it's not used right now so it's mostly for documentation.

WILL-- can you make sure that this entry has "REMOTE" in the .nml file
you zip up with tkemc.tcl and emcsh?

6. Start the EMC on the Linux/RT Linux box.

7. Run the TkEMC on the Windows box. It should connect across the
network, and bring up a window showing the status of the EMC. You can
use either the TkEMC on the Linux box, or the remote one, or both. Try
one and watch the other update.

--Fred