Information system

We have a common information system (called the ``Talker'') that contains the information produced by any (automatic or commanded) action of the observing system. This includes basic information about the action, but also warning and alarm messages (which are colour-coded). One can also view ``DEBUG'' message, but these are normally not shown. There is also a lot of information presented in the sequencer window when executing a command or script. It was decided that any information in the sequencer window should be limited to specific instructions to the user and general descriptions of the action being executed. Specific results of executing a command or script (e.g., the offset the telescope needs to do), and the specific actions being executed should (also) appear in the Talker. However, it is not easy to discern any potentially relevant information (e.g., an estimate of the seeing for imaging data obtained through a post-processing system) between all the other messages on the Talker if it is not a warning or alarm message (which stand-out as they are shown in orange and red). To make it easier to find this information, a new type of information definition has been added (called ``ASTRO'') that appears as green in the Talker. We are in the process of implementing this setting for selected message, and we are also reviewing which messages can and should be classified as DEBUG instead of as normal message so it will normally not appear in the Talker and make the other messages more visible.

Thomas Augusteijn 2013-05-10