The APS Intranet as a man-machine interface

The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory has implemented a number of methods for people to interact with the accelerator systems. The accelerator operators use Sun workstations running MEDM and Tk/TCL to interface interactively with the accelerator; however, many people need to view information rather than interact with the machine. One of the most common interfaces for viewing information at the Advanced Photon Source is the World Wide Web. Information such as operations logbook entries, machine status updates, and displays of archived and current data are easily available to APS personnel. This interface between people and the accelerator has proven to be quite useful. Because the Intranet is operating-system independent and inherently unidirectional, ensuring the prevention of unauthorized or accidental control of the accelerators is straightforward.