From: Luke Graham <spoooq@...>
Date: 2005-03-10T09:59:42+09:00
Subject: Re: scada: killer app for ruby

I look forward to being proved wrong.

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 09:42:53 +0900, jm <jeffm@ghostgun.com> wrote:
> 
> On 10/03/2005, at 10:41 AM, Luke Graham wrote:
> 
> > I think gnu scada systems are unlikely for a few reasons.
> > Customers want support more than anything, costs for
> > a broken scada can be calculated in wheelbarrows of
> > cash per minute. Scada is boring. Scada is hard.
> > The cost of integration can be more than the cost of
> > the software anyway. Finally, anyone who knows
> > anything about it is probably already doing it for a living.
> > Would you run your control systems on some kids
> > part-time experiment?
> >
> > One last thing.. ruby is fine for the windows end, all the
> > protocols can be implemented.. but its just not going
> > to work on the embedded end.
> 
> There is already some work in this area (non-ruby through).
> 
> http://pvbrowser.org/pvbrowser/index.php
> 
>  From the web page (introduction section),
> 
> SCADA
> 
> SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) is a category of
> software application program for process control, the gathering of data
> in real time from remote locations in order to control equipment and
> conditions. SCADA is used in power plants as well as in oil and gas
> refining, telecommunications, transportation, and water and waste
> control.
> 
>   SCADA systems include hardware and software components. The hardware
> gathers and feeds data into a computer that has SCADA software
> installed. The computer then processes this data and presents it in a
> timely manner ( HMI ). SCADA also records and logs all events into a
> file stored on a hard disk or sends them to a printer. SCADA warns when
> conditions become hazardous by sounding alarms.
> 
> ProcessViewBrowser
> 
> The concept is similar to an internet browser. But it is intended for
> the use in industrial process visualization. It is based on Qt
> http://www.trolltech.com which is a platform independent GUI toolkit.
> ProcessViewBrowser is platform independent, because only posix calls
> and Qt are used. ProcessViewBrowser runs on Linux/Unix, OpenVMS and
> Windows. The browser can display nearly all standard Qt widgets
> (labels, buttons, editfields, comboboxes, ...) and other widgets for
> bmp images, diagram widgets for displaying xy-graphs, OpenGL and VTK.
> The widgets can be arranged on your masks. You can specify the position
> and size of the widgets.You can place one widget on top of another
> widget. I have seen many process visualization systems, which define
> their masks in the clients (I think this is not the right way to go).
> Instead of this, the masks in ProcessViewBrowser are defined in the
> appropriate process computer itself. The user can jump from one process
> computer to the other and see all masks. When masks are updated nothing
> has to be done in the clients.
> 
> 
> J.
> 
> 


-- 
spooq