Ideas for the GUI of the new control system for SL/EA.

• Different user groups ("actors" in use case terms) should have different representation of the beamlines and equipment.
• It shall be possible to represent pieces of equipment with different names, according to the user groups (e.g. different names for SL/EA and for SL/BI).
• The experimental physicists shall have a more restricted environment (limited functionality and access to only one beamline) than privileged users (operators, specialists, liaison physicists).
• The GUI should have a graphical representation (synoptic diagram) of the beamline. It is not clear whether this representation shall be to scale (à l'échelle) with the real beamline layout or not.
• The synoptic diagram shall be automatically generated. Manual maintenance of images is not a good option, given the frequent changes in beamlines.
• To have a less crowded synoptic diagram, one could represent (or high-light) only those elements actually needed for a given operation. For instance, when doing beam tuning, the synoptic diagram would only represent the quadrupole magnets (?), or when looking at the beam profile, it would only show the wire chambers.
• It should be possible to move around within a synoptic diagram, with a zoom functionality and/or with a scroll bar.
• A tree-like representation (similar to the directory list in a Windows file manager) shall be explored as a possible (schematic) representation of the beamline elements and their sub-components.
• Context-sensitive menus shall be used. For instance, by clicking with the right mouse button on an equipment, a menu shall pop up that shows all the actions that can be carried out that equipment, depending on the equipment type.
• The structure of the current Nodal tree shall be reflected in the new GUI. A possibility would be to have menus corresponding to the tree branches.
• Menus shall automatically adapt to the privileges of a given user. For instance, the menu used by experimental physicists shall only allow them to carry out certain actions. One possible realization of this is to dim the menu choices that are not available (i.e. make them opaque), as this is done in Windows programs.
• A functionality like the current "Quick" program shall be provided. "Quick" continuously displays counters (or other values) of a set of equipment chosen by the user.