Hexapod Graphical User Interface (GUI) in Python

Platform

• AlmaLinux 8.10
• python: 3.11.9

Needed Package

• numpy (install by conda)
• pyyaml (install by conda)
• pyside6 (install by conda)
• qt6-charts (install by conda)
• qt5-qtbase-devel (install by dnf)
• xorg-x11-server-Xvfb (optional, install by dnf)
• qasync (install by conda -c conda-forge)
• black (optional)
• flake8 (optional)
• isort (optional)
• mypy (optional)
• documenteer (optional)
• pytest (optional, install by conda)
• pytest-flake8 (optional, install by conda -c conda-forge)
• pytest-qt (optional, install by conda -c conda-forge)
• pytest-xvfb (optional, install by conda -c conda-forge)

Code Format

This code is automatically formatted by black using a git pre-commit hook (see .pre-commit-config.yaml), which comes from the .ts_pre_commit_config.yaml.

To enable this, see pre-commit.

Build the Document

To build project documentation, run package-docs build to build the documentation. To clean the built documents, use package-docs clean. See Building single-package documentation locally for further details.

Run GUI in Docker Container

You need to set the QT environment variables:

export QT_API="PySide6"
export PYTEST_QT_API="PySide6"

AlmaLinux

If the user of docker container has no writing permission to the X11 socket, you need to run the following command first (use the root user in container):

xhost local:root

Then, do the image forwarding by the following command (note you need to use the root as the user or not):

docker run -it --rm -e DISPLAY -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix -v ${path_to_this_package}:${path_of_package_in_container} ${docker_image}:${image_tag}

MacOS

1. Setup the x11 by following: x11_docker_mac.

2. Forward GUI by (note the MacOS will handle the writing permission for you):

xhost +
IP=$(ifconfig en0 | grep inet | awk '$1=="inet" {print $2}')
docker run -it --rm -e DISPLAY=${IP}:0 -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix -v ${path_to_this_package}:${path_of_package_in_container} ${docker_image}:${image_tag}

Run GUI without the LSST Docker Image on MacOS

You need to setup the QT environment with:

export QT_MAC_WANTS_LAYER=1
export QT_MAC_USE_NSWINDOW=1

You may need to setup the PYTHONPATH to point to python/ directory as well.

Executable

The executable (run_hexgui) is under the bin/ directory. Use the argument of -h to know the available options. The logged message will be under the log/ directory.

Unit Tests

You can run the unit tests by:

pytest tests/

If you have the Xvfb and pytest-xvfb installed, you will not see the prompted windows when running the unit tests.

Note: If the variable of PYTEST_QT_API is not set, you might get the core dump error in the test.

Class Diagrams

The class diagrams are in here. You can use the Mermaid to read them. QT is an event-based framework and the signal plays an important role among classes. The emit() and connect() in the class diagrams mean the class emits a specific siganl or connects it to a specific callback function.