I need to make an app that takes a pipe and simply writes it to a file.
While I am sure that I could write such code I think that if the okFilePipe* components were available, I would be able to do what I need without touching any lower level code…
So, I am curious - what is the ETA for these components?
Thanks for any clues you might offer…
Cheers!
PS. I guess an alternative would be some sample code in C or C++ that does this… would save me some time and I bet this is one wheel that gets reinvented a lot
Actually, the okFilePipe was shelved a while back due to lack of interest. However, it could easily be “unshelved”. What is the format of the file you need to send? It would be easiest to provide a file browser, then let the user select a binary file to pipe over. Optionally, a Trigger In could be wired that would signify the start of the transfer. Similarly, a Trigger In could be used to signify the end of the transfer.
Any other requests?
Do you know Python? It’s probably the easiest way to access the FrontPanel API without having to recompile a C / C++ application.
The data that needs to be saved to a file will be streaming binary data so it does not really have a start or an end. It is in packets though so a trigger might be good to indicate a packet start, which is a good time to start a file write. I guess a GUI button labelled “stop” would be the best way to stop the file save.
I am not familiar with Python, but have been told in the past that I should learn it This project is opening up a lot of new things for me to learn I am not adverse to learning new things. Java I have worked with before.
The data will be flowing at around 3 MB/s so it is not a slow stream but not a really fast one either.
For streaming data, I’m not sure that the FrontPanel application and its XML components is the best place for this sort of thing. I’m certainly open to suggestions on how it would work and be handled in a generic way to best suit many applications.
It sounds like a job for a custom application. Both Java and Python are nice and have their own advantages and disadvantages. Python is particularly nice because it provides the object-oriented style which is so popular but also allows script-type execution which is endlessly useful for debugging and general fiddling around with this sort of thing.
Java and C++ approaches would both require a compile cycle which lengthens development time. Python’s performance for your task would also be quite adequate.
