Graphical programming environment for ATLAS

This paper discusses a graphical programming environment for ATLAS developed using Commercial Off The Shelf(COTS) software tools. This environment, known as Visual ATLAS, contains a revolutionary new approach to TPS development. The Visual ATLAS graphical programming environment provides an iconic representation of the ATLAS program now and structure. This includes test objects, variable declaration, loop/branch constructs procedures, module definition and more. Code reusability is supported via availability of an object library and software boilerplates. Because Visual ATLAS dramatically reduces the time required to develop ATLAS programs, users experience a substantial productivity gain. This results from ease of use, as well as simplified code maintenance and reuse. With Visual ATLAS, you build an ATLAS object framework instead of writing test programs. To specify program now, you build a now-chart like representation of the Test Program. This is an intuitive design environment for test technicians and engineers. This frees the programmer from working out the many syntactical details of conventional ATLAS programming. Objects are selected from a toolbox and are interconnected to other objects upon a sequence line to identify program now. This technique frees the programmer from the linear architecture of test-based ATLAS development.