14th Technical Meeting on Control Systems, Data Acquisition, Data Management and Remote Participation in Fusion Research

MDSplus version 8.0: The Path to Long Node Names

17 Jul 2024, 09:50

20m

Instituto de Física da Universidade de São Paulo

Oral Data Storage and Retrieval, Distribution and Visulaization Data Storage and Retrieval, Distribution and Visulaization

Speaker

Mark Winkel (MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center)

Description

MDSplus version 8.0 introduces 63-byte node names (in preparation for UTF-8 support).  Which means that signals can now have meaningful names, including the long names used in the IMAS / OMAS dictionaries.  This presentation describes the current state of the version 8.0 pre-release, possible enhancements, and how to obtain a copy of the software. 

Some preliminary uses of version 8.0 will be described.

A consequence of the long node names is that the file format for version 8.0 cannot be read by prior versions of MDSplus.  However, version 8.0 can read version 7.0 files.  Planning is thus required to successfully deploy version 8.0, especially for customers with many MDSplus servers and clients.   Advice regarding deployment will be presented.

Because version 8.0 is a major change, it is an opportunity to include other features that users have requested. Possible enhancements will be discussed. After the top priority features are added, version 8.0 will be officially released.

Presentation materials

MDSplus_v8.pdf