Glossary

This is a glossary of abbreviations, acronyms and terms used throughout this project.

Abbreviations

Abbreviation	Full Term
repo	repository
async	asynchronous

Acronyms

Acronym	Full Term
CI	Continuous Integration
CD	Continuous Deployment
DLS	Diamond Light Source
dodal	Diamond Ophyd Device Abstraction Layer
EPICS	A set of software tools and applications which provide a software infrastructure for use in building distributed control systems to operate devices such as Particle Accelerators, Large Experiments and major Telescopes (“Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System”)
GDA	Java/RCP acquisition platform developed at Diamond (“Generic Data Acquisition”)
ID	Insertion Device
IDE	Integrated Development Environment
IO	Input / Output
IOC	Input / Output Controller
PR	Pull Request
PV	Process Variable

Terms

Term	Definition
blueapi	Lightweight bluesky-as-a-service wrapper application. Also usable as a library.
bluesky	Bluesky is a library for experiment control and collection of scientific data and metadata.
beamline	A beamline is a collection of all devices used to run experiments. A beamline’s devices include all components from an insertion device which produces synchrotron light (beam) to detectors which collect experimental data, which may be read-only or capable of being set.
beamline workstation	A linux workstation which is present on the beamline-local network.
device	Hardware defined via ophyd protocols, although ophyd-async is the standard implementation at Diamond.
endstation	An endstation is a collection of devices which can be used together to run experiments, usually distinct from optical devices on a beamline. Beamlines may have one or more endstations which can be used for data collection either in parallel or exclusively.
graylog	A log management platform, which all container stdout/stderr logs are sent to at DLS.
ISPyB	A managed experimental information service for keeping track of your experiments at some Diamond beamlines. The front end for this is called synchweb.
the machine	The synchrotron.
ophyd	Ophyd is a Python library for interfacing with hardware. Ophyd is the older style of writing devices that is in use at NSLS-II, all new DLS devices should be ophyd-async.
ophyd-async	Ophyd-async is a Python library for asynchronously interfacing with hardware. All DLS devices will be written in ophyd-async, though it is common for people to refer to devices as ophyd devices as a shorthand even if they are actually written in ophyd-async.
plan	Bluesky’s concept of an experimental procedure.
plan stub	An instruction or ingredient which can be used to to write a bluesky plan.
run_engine	The executor of bluesky plans.
signal	Anything in a device that is expected to be set or read externally (e.g. by a plan) should be a signal, even if it does not connect to EPICS.
sphinx	A documentation generator.
training-rig	A prototyped beamline, with a small number of devices.
zocalo	An automated data processing system used at some Diamond beamlines.