The software components at DCT are divided into 2 main sections:
- Telescope related software (e.g. TCS, AOS, DCS, ...)
- Instrument relates software (LOIS & LOUI)
DCT software is written primarily in LabVIEW; Lowell Instrument Group (LIG) software is written primarily in Java and C/C++.
The two systems do not share a message-passing protocol, so an intermediary is used to handle DCT/LIG communication. The intermediary is a JMS broker. Although the broker addresses the lack of a common message-passing interface, it does not define the format of the messages. DCT has chosen an XML format for the messages, which is described in DCT Cross-platform Messaging and XML Data Format Design Description.
For trouble shooting, it is very important to understand the messaging architecture and logical layout of the system. Please refer to Messaging Architecture page for more information.