LAMPS SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT GUIDE

Laser-Scan Ltd.

Laser-Scan Automated Map Production System

LAMPS Software Environment Guide

Issue 2.4 - 31-Mar-1992
Copyright (C) $$year Laser-Scan Ltd
Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, England CB4 4FY tel: (0223) 420414

Document "LAMPS Software Environment Guide"

Document Issue 0.1 Paul Hardy 16-May-1986
Document Issue 1.0 Paul Hardy 22-Jul-1986
Document Issue 1.2 Paul Hardy 19-Dec-1986
Document Issue 2.0 Paul Hardy 27-Jul-1987
Document Issue 2.1 Paul Hardy 14-Jan-1988
Document Issue 2.2 Paul Hardy 05-Aug-1988
Document Issue 2.3 Paul Hardy 03-Aug-1990
Document Issue 2.4 Paul Hardy 31-Mar-1992

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PREFACE

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Intended audience

This manual is intended for any user of the *Laser-Scan *Automated *Map *Production *System (LAMPS), and Laser-Scan *Geographic *Information *System (GIS) software who requires an overview of the system, and an understanding of the software environment.

In particular it is for the system manager who is responsible for software updates and the continued smooth running of the system. The guide will describe the components of the system, their usual locations in the filing system, and the environment necessary to run the programs.

It is assumed that the user is already familiar with general use of a DEC VAX series computer and of the VMS operating system. More details on VMS are available in the DEC VAX/VMS reference manuals. Readers are also referred to associated Laser-Scan references. See below for a list of associated manuals.

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Structure of this document

This document is composed of 4 major sections.

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Associated documents

Documentation for Laser-Scan LAMPS software is distributed in with each software package. The following documentation indicate manuals which may be particularly relevant to maintenance of the software environment for LAMPS. Latest versions of these documents are obtainable from Laser-Scan.

Package MAPPING
LSL LAMPS Software Installation Guide
IFF User Guide
IFFLIB Reference manual
FRT User Guide
FRTLIB Programmer Reference Manual
SRINORM User Guide
MAPPING Software Product Specification

Package IMP
IMP User Guide
IMP Reference Manual
IMP Software Product Specification

Package LITES2
LITES2 Reference Manual
LITES2 User's Guide
LITES2 Software Product Specification
LITES2 Workstation Guides for particular displays

Package PLOTTING
FPP Fast Plotting Program Reference Manual
FPP Software Product Specification
FPP User Guides for particular plotters

Optional Packages
See package documentation

Device Support Packages
The Laser-Scan HRD-1/Lasertrak Reference Manual
VAX LDLIB and HR Driver Technical Documentation and System Manager's Guide

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conventions used in this document


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Convention Meaning
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<CR> The user should press the carriage return key on the
terminal.
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'colour' Single quotes imply that the quoted object is to be
substituted by a particular occurrence of the object,
eg BLUE or RED for 'colour'.


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INTRODUCTION

Laser-Scan LAMPS is a combination of hardware and software components which together allow use of modern high performance DEC VAX minicomputers and worksystems for digital cartography and automated map production.

Laser-Scan GIS software (HORIZON for Environmental systems and METROPOLIS for land information), uses the same LAMPS components with some extra software (XGIS) to provide facilities for geographic query and update. In the discussion which follows, both map production and GIS systems will often be referred to collectively as "LAMPS".

LAMPS and GIS systems may vary in size considerably. At the bottom end, there may be just a single editing workstation, running the "Basic LAMPS" software packages. At the top end it may be a a large system using multiple networked or clustered computers running many automated data capture, manual data capture, editing, processing, check plotting, conversion, update, final plotting, and query tasks on a variety of workstations and terminals.

Laser-Scan may provide a complete hardware/software turnkey system, together with continuing full system support, including VMS support. Alternatively, in some cases Laser-Scan provide just software to complement existing customer hardware.

In either case there will usually be someone on-site with responsibility for the smooth running of the LAMPS system, and the information in the rest of this document should help him or her achieve an overview of the system.

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HARDWARE COMPONENTS

The central hardware component of a LAMPS system will be one or more DEC VAX or MicroVAX series computers, with associated disk, magtape, communications and terminal peripherals. The other hardware components of the system will depend on the software options selected, but may include one or more of the following.

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SOFTWARE COMPONENTS

A LAMPS system consists of both hardware and software components. Software components are grouped by function into packages, which may be either single programs or collections of individual utilities. For a description of the contents of each package, and its hardware and software requirements, please refer to its Software Product Specification (SPS), available separately from Laser-Scan. The following is a list of major software components with their major hardware dependencies.

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LAMPS KERNEL PACKAGES

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LAMPS BASIC PACKAGES

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LAMPS OPTIONAL PACKAGES

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LAMPS MATRIX PROCESSING PACKAGES

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LAMPS GIS PACKAGES

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LAMPS DEVICE SUPPORT PACKAGES

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LAMPS SUPERCEDED PACKAGES

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SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT

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LOGICAL NAMES

Most programs read and/or write disk data files and terminals during their operation. For reasons of simplicity, flexibility, and economy, all Laser-Scan programs carry out these accesses via "logical names" rather than via embedded device names, or default or fixed directories. This means that the user need not be concerned with current default directory etc, and there is no need to copy or duplicate files. These logical names usually have the form LSL$name or LSL_name to avoid conflict with DEC or other manufacturer's products.

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FILES AND DIRECTORIES

The files involved in the LAMPS system can be divided firstly into program files and data files. Program files are supplied by Laser-Scan, while most data files are transient. A series of logical names is provided by Laser-Scan to allow easy access to LAMPS files and directories. These are described below.

There have been a variety of directory layouts on Laser-Scan systems in the past, but all future LAMPS systems should use the following conventions. All Laser-Scan files should now be contained on five (occasionally six) directory trees, as follows:

The files can be further categorised as follows.

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SEARCH LISTS

As described above, logical name search lists are provided to obviate the need for ordinary users to know the precise location on the public tree of program images, help files, command procedures etc. The main ones of these are LSL$EXE, LSL$COM, LSL$HELP, and LSL$LOOKUP.

Taking LSL$EXE as an example, on a minimal LAMPS system with packages LSLSYSTEM, MAPPING, IMP, LITES2, PLOTTING, SIGMA and TABLE, the logical name LSL$EXE must translate to include the following directories
LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT:[LSLSYSTEM.EXE],
LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT:[MAPPING.EXE],
LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT:[IMP.EXE],
LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT:[LITES2.EXE],
LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT:[PLOTTING.EXE],
LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT:[SIGMA.EXE],
LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT:[TABLE.EXE]


It is recommended that it also include as the first translation the directory:
LSL$SITE_ROOT:[LSL.EXE]

in which testing or modified releases of software can be placed so that they get taken in preference to the public tree "standard" version.

Similarly LSL$COM, LSL$HELP, and LSL$LOOKUP should pass first through directories [LSL.COM], [LSL.HELP] and [LSL.LOOKUP] on LSL$SITE_ROOT. These can then be used for modified command procedures, help files and lookup files to avoid changing the standard versions on the public tree.

At sites which have been installed using the LSLINSTALL automated installation procedure (see below), a file containing the definitions for these search lists will automatically have been generated using a procedure called LSLSEARCHLISTS_GENERATE.COM which is supplied as part of the LSLSYSTEM package. This procedure can be re-run while logged on as user SYSTEM to regenerate the file which will be called LSDEFNS_SEARCHLISTS.COM and live in the SYS$MANAGER: directory.

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USERS, PROCESSES, AND UICS

Conventionally, each user of the system has their own username and password, so that a record is kept in the accounting system of resources used. All Laser-Scan programs may be run by any authorised user of the system, and do not require the use of any particular username. It is however conventional to have a captive user CONTROL to run the DCL procedure which administrates the DIGSYS control process, and a user VTRAK to run the VTRAK vector digitising package.

All users of the LAMPS system must be allocated User Identifier Codes (UICs) in the same group (usually 100) so that they have group privileges with respect to one another. This allows files created by one user to be edited by another, and allows inter-process synchronisation for eg DIGSYS via group-wide common event flags.

Note that in the production flowline situation, many users are involved in progressing a map through the various stages of digitising, editing, processing, plotting, validating etc. Hence it is particularly important that file protections do not interfere with this sharing of data.

It is normal to reserve UICs [100,1] to [100,10] inclusive for Laser-Scan use, particularly for hardware and software maintenance, and if so then the following usernames are also reserved.

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SYSTEM MANAGEMENT

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PACKAGE INITIALISATION

All the symbols and logical names required to run LAMPS programs can be set up by a series of command procedures available on LSL$COM - a general Laser-Scan one, and one for each package. The default action of each package initialisation procedure is to set up all symbols, and all logical names in the process logical name table.

Some packages support definition of their logical names at VMS system startup (bootstrap) time. If an optional argument SYSTEM or GROUP is given to such a procedure, then it will only define the logical names, and will do it in the given logical name table (system or group). Note that while duplicated effort can be avoided by defining logical names system-wide at system startup time, symbols can only be defined on a per-process basis.

Generally, if logical names are already set up when a package initialisation procedure is invoked, they will not be overwritten.

The package initialisation procedure must be executed before running any of the programs of that package, and this is normally done in one of the following ways.

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SOFTWARE INSTALLATION PROCEDURES

LAMPS software is normally issued as DEC BACKUP savesets on either 1/2 inch 1600bpi industry standard magtape, or on DEC TK50 cartridge tape. Each package is a normally a single saveset with the saveset name the same as the package name. In some cases, there will be a second saveset for a package, with a name having "_2" appended to the package name, eg LITES2_2.

A command procedure LSLINSTALL.COM is provided as part of the basic LSL system support package LSLSYSTEM to carry out the main steps in LAMPS software installation. The procedure has built in help. However, as it is part of the software it is intended to install, some degree of manual bootstrapping is of course required.

There is a separate document, the "LSL LAMPS Software Installation Guide" which explains the installation procedure in some detail, and the reader is referred to this document for further information.

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SOFTWARE UPDATES PROCEDURES

All DEC standard software including VMS should be kept up to date with new releases as issued by DEC, using the DEC-supplied procedures. See the "VMS Software Installation Guide" for details.

Laser-Scan will issue periodic new releases of software components to customers with software maintenance contracts. New releases of software may take the form of complete packages in the same form as for an initial installation (see above), or of particular package components. In either case, the usual distribution medium is BACKUP savesets on 1600bpi 1/2 inch magtape or on TK50 cartridge.

These new releases should be placed on the appropriate directories on the LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT public directory tree. There is a procedure LSLUPDATE.COM available on the LSL$COM search list which automates the steps in reading an update tape onto a temporary directory tree, reporting its contents, checking for conflicts, merging the temporary tree with the public tree, and clearing up afterwards. The LSLUPDATE procedure has an inbuilt help facility, and the steps involved are

If you have an update to install, and (for some strange reason) have not yet got the LSLUPDATE procedure currently on your public tree, then you can bootstrap it from the release tape as follows:


$ MOUNT MUA0:/FOREIGN
$ BACKUP MUA0:/REWIND/SELECT=LSLUPDATE.COM LSL$PUBLIC_ROOT:[*...]/LOG
$ DISMOUNT MUA0:/NOUNLOAD

NOTES

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ENVIRONMENT FOR LAMPS KERNEL PACKAGES

The following sections detail the required LAMPS software environment by package. It should be noted that package LSLSYSTEM and package MAPPING are prerequisites for all other LAMPS packages, and therefore, their environments are assumed to be present and are not fully described again for each subsequent package.

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LSLSYSTEM - LASER-SCAN SYSTEM SUPPORT SOFTWARE

The Laser-Scan system software support package (LSLSYSTEM) is required by all LSL software components. It includes environment setup command files, supplementary system utilities, and utility programs needed by more than one package. Its environment requirements are also needed for all LAMPS packages, and are described below.

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MAPPING - LASER-SCAN MAPPING KERNEL SOFTWARE

The Laser-Scan Mapping Kernel Software package (MAPPING) is required by all other LAMPS software components. It includes the IFF file interface library (IFFLIB), the Feature Representation library (FRTLIB), as well as various central LAMPS initialisation and control procedures.

Its environment requirements are also needed for all LAMPS packages, and are described below.

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ENVIRONMENT FOR LAMPS BASIC PACKAGES

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IMP - IFF MAP PROCESSING

These are programs which create, modify or examine IFF map data files in various ways. This package is an enhanced replacement for package DAMP. Examples of IMP programs are -
IMERGE - Merge IFF. Used to combine IFF files or extract features by layer.
ISORT - Sort IFF. Used to restore features into FSN order.
ITOTEXT - IFF convertor to printable (ASCII) text format.

Their required environment is usually little more than that for the kernel packages (LSLSYSTEM and MAPPING), but note the following:

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LITES2 - CARTOGRAPHIC EDITING

LITES2 is the current version of the Laser-Scan Cartographic Editing System. It has a moderately complex environment, described below, and users are referred to the "LITES2 Reference Manual", and the appropriate "LITES2 Workstation Guide" for more information.

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PLOTTING - CARTOGRAPHIC PLOTTING (FPP)

The core of package PLOTTING is FPP which is the Laser-Scan Fast Plotter program. Variants of FPP are available for a variety of plotting devices. FPP takes features from nominated IFF files and displays them according to feature representations extracted from a set of FRT, SRI, and TRI files. Its required environment is described below.

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ENVIRONMENT FOR LAMPS OPTIONAL PACKAGES

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VTRAK - VECTOR DIGITISING

The vector scanning and line following digitiser package (VTRAK) has a very complex and largely self-contained environment, which is described in the package documentation for the VTRAK package. It requires a the SCANCONVERT package and a source of raster scanned map data.

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LASERAID - AUTOMATIC DIGITISING

Laseraid is the Laser-Scan vector scanning and line-following automatic digitiser program. It uses a FASTRAK or Lasertrak digitiser. See also packages HRD and HIACC for details of the device support required. Its required environment is described below.

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DIGSYS - MANUAL DIGITISING

The DIGSYS on-line digitising system has a complex environment which is documented more fully in the "DIGSYS Reference Manual". Note that DIGSYS is usually invoked via a captive CONTROL user. A summary of the required environment is given below.

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CONVERT - IFF DATA CONVERSION

The IFF data conversion package (CONVERT) is an optional component which allows conversion of IFF data to and from a variety of standard external formats. The package is divided into modules, and each customer will normally receive only those modules which are relevant. The required environment may vary between options, but is basically the same as for the IMP package.

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FLOWLINE - FLOWLINE CONTROL

The Flowline Control package (FLOWLINE) is an optional component which allows control of the tasks and data involved in managing a production flowline. It uses the DEC Rdb relational database to store flowline and status information. The main program involved is called LAMPSCONTROL. The required environment is quite complex and is described fully in the Reference Manual of the FLOWLINE package.

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CUSTOMER - CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC SOFTWARE

Many LAMPS customers have a need for customer-specific software to tailor the LAMPS system for their precise application, eg to transfer map data to an external databank in a particular format. Such utilities usually require a limited environment similar to that of IMP (qv). Any customer-specific Laser-Scan logical names should take the form LSL$'customer'_'purpose'. eg LSL$OS_CODES for customer OS (Ordnance Survey), code lookup file.

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STRUCTURE - STRUCTURED IFF PROCESSING

The Structured IFF data package (STRUCTURE) is an optional component which allows the creation and manipulation of link-node structured (junction) IFF data files. The ILINK program which is a major element of this package will do extensive geometric "tidies" on vector data, eg extension, truncation, common alignment, etc. The required environment is described below.

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POLYGONS - POLYGON IFF PROCESSING

The Polygon IFF data package (POLYGONS) is an optional component which allows the creation and manipulation of Polygon IFF files. The STRUCTURE package is needed as a prerequisite. The required environment is described below.

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ENVIRONMENT FOR MATRIX PROCESSING PACKAGES

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MATRIX - MATRIX DATA HANDLING

The MATRIX package allows basic viewing and manipulation of matrix data. It is a prerequisite for packages DTMCREATE, DTMCONVERT, TVES and IMAGEPROCESS. Its environment is assumed to be available for those packages, and is described below.

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DTMCREATE - TERRAIN MODEL CREATION

The DTMCREATE package allows generation of terrain models from IFF map data. Its required environment is described below.

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DTMPREPARE - PREPARATION FOR TERRAIN MODELLING

The DTMPREPARE package is an optional extension to package DTMCREATE which allows checking and analysis of vector data to be used as input to terrain model generation. An example is the automated heighting of river networks by intersection with contours. Its required environment is described below.

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DTMCONVERT - DTI MATRIX DATA CONVERSION

The DTM conversion package (DTMCONVERT) is an optional component which allows conversion of DTI matrix data to and from a variety of standard external formats. Note that this package is divided into modules for different formats, and only relevant modules need be supplied. Its required environment may vary according to module, but is likely to be as described below.

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TVES - TERRAIN VALIDATION AND EXPLOITATION

The TVES package allows display and analysis of terrain model data. Its required environment is described below.

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IMAGEPROCESS - REMOTE SENSED IMAGE PROCESSING

The Image processing package (IMAGEPROCESS) is an optional component which provides conversion to DTI file of remotely sensed (eg satellite imagery) data from external formats Its required environment is described below.

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ENVIRONMENT FOR LAMPS GIS PACKAGES

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LAMPS GIS PACKAGES

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ENVIRONMENT FOR LAMPS DEVICE SUPPORT PACKAGES

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HRD - HRD-1 DEVICE SUPPORT

This package includes device driver and interface library for the HRD-1 high resolution display/plotter, and also for the Lasertrak and FASTRAK digitisers. Note that this package is also used outside the LAMPS environment to support use of HRD-1 displays for other applications, and that it may need the HIACC package if high accuracy plotting is to be achieved.

Its required environment is described below. See the "VAX LDLIB and HR: Driver Technical Documentation and System Manager's Guide" for a more detailed description.

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LASERPLOT - LASERPLOT/MLP1 DEVICE SUPPORT

This package includes utilities and interface library for the Laserplot and MLP-1 microprocessor controlled laser plotters. Its required environment is described below.

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HIACC - LASERPLOT/HRD HIGH ACCURACY SUPPORT

This package is needed when either a Lasertrak or Laserplot is used for cartographic quality plotting. It includes utilities and command procedures for carrying out calibrations. Its required environment is described below.

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ARGS - SIGMEX ARGS 7000 DEVICE SUPPORT

This package includes utilities and interface library for the Sigmex ARGS 7000 colour raster display. Its required environment is described below.

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SIGMA - SIGMEX 6000 DEVICE SUPPORT

This package includes command procedures and unsupported interface library for the Sigmex 6000 series colour raster displays. Its required environment is described below.

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MUART - MULTI UART WORKSTATION DEVICE SUPPORT

This package includes utilities and command procedures for a Laser-Scan MUART multiplexing workstation. Its required environment is described below.

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SCANCONVERT - RASTER SCANNER INPUT SUPPORT

The raster scanner data conversion package (SCANCONVERT) includes support utilities for use of a raster scanner or offline magtape input of raster scanned map data. It is needed if the VTRAK vectorisation package is in use, or if the Raster Backdrop option is purchased for the LITES2 package.

Its environment is dependent on whether its output is destined for LITES2 or VTRAK, and is covered by the description of those packages.

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TABLE - ALTEK DIGITISING TABLE DEVICE SUPPORT

This package includes device support utilities for use of an Altek digitising table, and an interface library for use of a manual digitising table via the Laser-Scan Table Monitor. The Table Monitor is a detached process which runs at elevated priority and receives digitising events from the table. It then communicates these events to an applications process (such as LITES2 or TVES), using common event flags (CEFs) and a shared global section. See the "Table Monitor Reference Manual" for details.

Tables supplied by Laser-Scan are currently likely to be Altek tables with AC40 controllers. Other manufacturer's tables may be acceptable to some programs, possibly with reduced functionality. Contact Laser-Scan for further information. The TABLE package required environment is described below.