a little progress on control software

[Stupendous Man <richmond@a188-l009.rit.edu>]

  I've taken Chris A.'s socket software and shoe-horned it into the
"tait" control program.  The main program can now accept input from
either
            - the keyboard (default)
            - a text file
            - a socket
           
  I've also written a small "client" program, which simply opens
a connection to the main program's waiting socket, sends a command,
and quits.  Nothing sophisticated.

  The point is that I can now use any scripting language to act as
a front end to the camera.  Just now, for example, I used TCL to
perform a loop 10 times:

             - check the camera ADC values (such as temperature, etc.)
             - sleep for 60 seconds
              
  I can now run long strings of diagnostic commands -- watching temperature
change over a night, or taking a set of 50 darks, or something like that --
without having to sit at the keyboard and type each one by hand.  

  Again, nothing earth-shattering, but a small step forward.  This facility
will be more useful with some sort of a "command shell", or friendly
GUI.  Oh, and documentation :-)

  Anyone who wants to send me tips or suggestions on arranging 
a means by which a socket on the "control computer" can listen for
commands from _other_ computers, please do.  I've verified that a 
simple telnet connection will do the trick -- but, of course, I don't
want to set up a computer to accept all incoming telnet packets.
If you can tell me how to modify my /etc/services or other files
to do this in a secure fashion, I'd appreciate it.  I'd also appreciate
advice from people who say, "It can't be made secure -- don't bother."

                                          Michael Richmond