XTCE12 — repeat of arguments issue

The following command makes use of a repeat block of arguments:

ack_packets ( num_acks, ack_block )

Ack_block consists of three arguments: pkt_start, pkt_end and pkt_time

This would be a perfectly valid command:

ack_block[0].pkt_start = 1
ack_block[0].pkt_end = 1
ack_block[0].pkt_time = 00:00:00

ack_packets ( 1, ack_block )

This is not capturable in XTCE because there is no mechanism for having REPEATS of ARGUMENTS.

There are workarounds but there are less than ideal, they are:

– use an array, this is problematic because the types of each sub-field may be different (see above, pkt_time is a TIME type)
– treat them as parameters... which they are not...

Repeating arguments for memory loads

Extension of the argument concept to cover repeating argument blocks is not in the scope of the original RFP. There is a workaround that utilizes aggregrate parameter types instead of arguments.