Re: [foxboro] foxboro Digest V7 #356

Comments on transitioning from legacy (Solaris/Unix) to Windoze/MESH.

I am helping with a transition to Windoze/Mesh on a fairly large and 
well-established refinery-wide control system.? Drawing/screen 
conversions?have not been?consistently straightforward, especially when 
using older templates, which we wanted to do to provide continuity of 
look and feel at this location.? Be warned that there is no backward 
compatibility between drawings created on the new system and the old 
system, so in some cases you have to maintain two "identical" drawings 
or do it on the old and migrate to the new.

With Foxdraw, mouse clicking and dragging are different between the old 
and new, and requires some getting used to.? Screens done in Windows 
are not as likely to appear exactly on the actual displays as they do 
in FoxDraw, and the best solution I have found is to do the screens in 
FoxDraw at 85, 90 or 90% sizing, depending on the object being drawn, 
and frequently checking between what you are designing and how it 
actually looks on a "live" screen.? This is inefficient at best.

There is some irritation with how Windows manages the various windows - 
such as ICC popping up partly on each of two screens, then the 
mandatory dragging to one screen or the other.? I also personally like 
the old "front" button rather than constantly referring to the task bar 
to retreive other applications.? Also, FoxSelect seems to pop up block 
details in unexpected places on two-headed stations, and to get back to 
FoxView, you have to remember which task bar icon goes to which head - 
it's not clearly delineated.

The main irritation is only being able to use ICC on one Windows 
station, even when trying to edit different CP's.? The flexibility to 
use just about any station on the old system for ICC AND the ability to 
edit more than one CP at a time is a feature that should not have been lost.

That being said, it is nice to be able to transfer savealls easily in 
the Windows world via regular PC's, etc.

On a large system that is slowly migrating from Unix to Windoze, it 
seems as though there is a "Berlin Wall" right in the middle of things 
- that wall being the MESH with Windoze on one side and all the legacy 
hardware and apps on the other side.? There are a lot of adjustment 
pains and will continue to be as the system slowly climbs over the 
wall.? I'm just not sure at this point, along with accommodating the 
new FCP's and ZCP's, etc., where we will be once finally over the wall 
- East or West Berlin!

Issues for the future:? historian migration; propagating crontab 
applications; etc.? Good luck everyone, on this forced march.

Rick Guercio
RG Consulting

 
 
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