A standard control system for the Large Millimeter Telescope and instruments

The Large Millimeter Telescope monitor and control system is automatically generated from a set of XML configuration files. This insures that all inter-system communications and user interfaces adhere to a common standard. The system was originally designed to control the electro-mechanical components of the telescope but it maps well to the control of instruments. Properties of the instruments are defined in XML and subsequent control and communication code and user interfaces are generated. This approach works well in theory, however, when it comes to installing the system on the actual instruments, several problems arise: the goals of instrument developers, software support for instrument developers, hardware compatibility issues, and choice of computer architecture and development environment. In this paper, we present a discussion of the above issues and suggest tried solutions.