
		README for ASCII API library of TACO 
		------------------------------------

The TACO Ascii based API library is used to give the clients a string (C type)
based interface to the device server commands.

The name of the device, the command to be executed on that device, the input
and output parameters all are specified in strings.

This library uses the TACO type conversion library to do the necessary type
conversion to (output data) and from (input data) strings.

Files needed to build the TACO conversion library are :

	asc_api.c - Contains three functions for executing a device server
                    command : dev_get_ascii, dev_put_ascii and dev_putget_ascii.

        Makefile - GNU Makefile to build the shared and archive libraries

                   Main targets are :

                   (o) "all" to make shared version and archive version of the
                       Ascii API library (libascapi.sl and libascapi.a).

                   (o) "libascapi.a" to make only archive version of the
                       Ascii API library.

                   (o) "libascapi.sl" or "libascapi.so" (it depends on the
                       architecture : first one on HPUX the second on SOLARIS)
                       to make only the shared version of the Ascii API library.

                   (o) "install" to copy only the shared library in the lib
                       directory ../lib/$OS.

                   (o) "clean" to remove all object files

                   (o) "clobber" to remove all object files and all libraries
                   

To be able to test and to debug the library a test application is developped.
It can be found under ../test_lib directory.

