RMS II
RMS ScriptCheck Application

RMS ScriptCheck

• Introduction
• System Requirements
• Software Components
• Software Installation
• Software Setup
• Notes

Introduction

The RMS ScriptCheck application lets you check RMS II script files for syntax, formatting, and scheduling problems by simply dragging and dropping the script files onto the application's Finder icon. If ScriptCheck finds any problems with a script, it displays the suspect script lines along with a description of the problem.

System Requirements

CPU:           Any 680x0 or PowerPC Macintosh, PowerBook, or clone
Memory Usage:  1.5MB
Disk Usage:    1.0MB
Network:       none required
OS:            System 9.1 or later, with CarbonLib 1.6 or later; or OS X 10.2 or later

Software Components

• RMS ScriptCheck application (v3.7)

Software Installation

1. Copy the application file "RMS ScriptCheck" to the Mac's hard disk.
2. Restart your Mac and rebuild the desktop (restart your Mac and then hold down the Option and Command keys just after the row of icons at the bottom of your screen finishes appearing but before the desktop windows appear).

Software Setup

Before you use the RMS ScriptCheck application you should first edit the application Preferences to set the checking parameters (for users of RMS Scheduler/ScriptCheck v9.8.5 and later, the settings which the Preferences specify are automatically included in the script file generated by the Scheduler - see note below for details).To edit the Preferences:

1. Invoke the Preferences command from the File menu to open the Preferences dialog.
2. Set the Inter-Event Gap times to match your style of script writing. RMS ScriptCheck uses these gap time values to decide if enough unscheduled time follows each of the script events in your script. If a script event is not followed by enough unscheduled time, then ScriptCheck will generate a warning or error message when you check that script. You may specify a different time value in the Preferences for each of the Sound, Scan, Mail, and FTP event types.
3. To determine whether a Scan event "fits" into the time allotted to it, RMS ScriptCheck must calculate how long the Scan event is expected to take. To do this calculation, ScriptCheck must know how fast the RMS Server can execute band scans. In the Band Scans section of the Preferences, you tell the application how many scan samples the Server can perform per second.
   
   This number can vary between Servers based upon a number of factors:
   
   • The speed of the server Mac
   • The speed of the ADC device (e.g. the Drake)
   • The version of the RMS Server software (e.g. the old 680x0 versions are slower than the newer PPC native versions)
   • The dwell time you specify in the scan event

   To figure out what the actual band scan performance is for a particular RMS Server:

   • Take a few "real" scan files that have been recorded by the server
   • For each scan file, calculate scan samples per second:
     • duration_in_seconds = time_of_last_SMeter_reading_in_file - time_of_first_SMeter_reading_in_file + 1
     • samples_per_second = number_of_SMeter_readings_in_file / duration_in_seconds
   • Average the samples_per_second values from all of the scan files

   To be on the "safe" side, you might want to shade the final number toward the low side, or just use the smallest number instead of the average. That way, you are telling RMS ScriptCheck that it takes longer to do a band scan than it might actually take, and so you will require a larger time window in your schedule for band scans in order to keep ScriptCheck from complaining about overlapping events. Then when the script actually executes, it should have plenty of time to perform each band scan without running into the next scheduled event.
   
   NOTE: Empirical tests have shown that 11.9 scans per second is a good number for most RMS Server installations as of this writing.

4. Click the OK button to save any changes you made to the Preferences and close the dialog window.
   
5. For users of RMS Scheduler and RMS ScriptCheck v9.8.5 and later, the settings which used to be specified by the ScriptCheck Preferences dialog are now included in the script files generated by the Scheduler. The Scheduler automatically places information in the script file which specifies the timing parameters ScriptCheck should use when checking the script. If ScriptCheck finds these settings in the script file, it uses these settings and ignores those in the Preferences dialog. If ScriptCheck does not find any timing parameters in the script file, it uses the settings in the Preferences dialog.

Notes

• To use RMS ScriptCheck, simply drag and drop one or more script files onto the application's Finder icon. Or, with the application already open, invoke the Check Script command from the File menu to select a script file to check.
   
• To check a script, the application first expands the script as is done when a script file is installed on an RMS Server. The expanded script file is named "Analyzed Script". ScriptCheck then reads each line of the expanded script file and reports any problems it finds in the application's main window.
   
• If ScriptCheck finds any problems, you should fix the problems by editing your original, unexpanded script file. As a convenience, you may invoke the Recheck Script command from the File menu to quickly initiate checking the same file(s) again.
   
• To resolve certain event overlap problems you may have to edit your checking parameters in the Preferences dialog if they were set too aggressively.