A user-extensible graphical user interface for control of either instrument-control program, ACE or spec

A single Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been developed to control the ACE [1–3] and spec [4] beamline-control and data-acquisition programs in use at Brookhaven National Laboratoryʹs National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). The basic GUI provides a user-friendly interface to the primitive and macro-controlled operations of the programs. In addition, the GUI package provides facilities to allow users of the program to extend the GUI by construction of their own GUI screens so that they may have user-friendly interfaces to their customized macros. The GUI is easy to install and the authors expect to maintain it.