The Pieces of MSM-Workstation

1
The Pieces of MSM-Workstation

• John Murray
• George James Software

2
Goal

• Outline the boundaries between Workstation
  components described in the MSM Product Plan
  from InterSystems Corporation, so that the
  consequences of that Product Plan can be better
  understood

3
Before proceeding...

• I am not speaking for InterSystems Corporation
• Formerly Software Engineer with Micronetics
  Europe (4.5 years)
• Design, development and roll-out of
  MSM-Workstation
• 11 years experience in the M World

4
Distributed Components

• The Engine (the DLL)
• Runs M code
• Manages access to M databases containing globals
  and routines, including network connectivity
• Provides system service functions for application
  use
• The Tool (the EXE)
• GUI development environment
• Edits routines, globals, windows and other
  components
• Supports interactive GUI debugging of M code
• Creates redistributable EXEs that use the engine

5
The Engine

• MSMWS002.DLL
• Three elements of the engine
• Implementation of X11.1 (M)
• Written in C source shared with MSM-Server
• Implementation of X11.6 (MWAPI)
• Written in C
• Service routines
• Written in M
• Auxiliary file, MSMTCP2.DLL, only invoked if
  TCP/IP features are used

6
The Tool

• MSMWS.EXE
• A Workstation-built EXE just like your own
• Assembled using a bootstrap process from
• M routines
• M globals
• Window definitions (VEX files)
• Supporting XCall package, MSMDEV.DLL
• Built from C sources

7
The ISC Plan

• Support and tactical enhancements for the M
  component of the engine
• No support or enhancement for the MWAPI component
  of the engine, and no changes other than to fix
  absolutely critical bugs
• Release the source code for the tool, so that
  interested users can enhance it

8
What does this mean?

• Users of the WS tool will be able to fix/improve
  it themselves, or contract with others who offer
  such services
• ISC support for the M engine should resolve
  certain types of problem, and yield improvements
  in areas such as connectivity
• Consider the MWAPI portion of the engine as
  frozen. Develop problem workarounds in your own
  code, or in the tools window code-generator