Introduction
Conform Universal (ConformU) is a cross-platform tool to validate that Alpaca Devices and ASCOM Drivers conform to the ASCOM interface and Alpaca protocol specifications. ConformU runs natively on Linux, Arm, MacOS and Windows and supersedes the original Windows Forms based Conform application, which will not be developed further.
Highlights
This release can check conformance of drivers and Alpaca devices that implement Platform 7 Interfaces in addition to testing Platform 6 drivers and devices.
Potentially Breaking Change
The format of the Alpaca protocol log files has changed, and is now consistent with the format used for conformance checks. If developers currently parse the Alpaca protocol log to extract conformance information, the parsing scripts may need to be re-coded to match the new format.
Changes since version 3.1.0
- General
- The Help section has been updated with information on the latest features.
- The Windows operating system is now more clearly shown in the status bar and in conformance reports.
- The alpaca protocol check log format has been updated to add a timestamp and make it consistent with conformance check logs (thanks go to Ingvar Stepanyan for implementing this change).
- Switch
- Added a test for the optional SetSwitchName method.
- Telescope
- The pulse guide test has been extended to clearly identify synchronous / asynchronous behaviour and confirm whether dual axis pulse guiding is supported.
- Added a test for ITelescopeV4 devices to confirm that Tracking throws a ParkedException when the telescope is parked.
Bug fixes
- Logging
- UTF8 characters are now preserved when console output is piped to child processes
- Some duplicated entries in the console log have been removed.
- Alpaca Protocol Tester - This now waits for the telescope to complete unparking before moving on to test FindHome
- Telescope - The DoesRefraction state is now preserved across a conformance run.
- Telescope - ConformU now ensures that tracking is enabled before undertaking PulseGuide tests.
Installers
All installers are completely self-contained and do not have dependencies on any other packages.
- Windows x86, x64 and ARM64
- The Windows installer (ConformU.X.Y.Z.Setup.exe) supports both 32bit and 64bit Intel/AMD processors as well as 64bit ARM processors. The installer will create the expected start menu entries and optionally create a desktop icon.
- MacOS
- The MacOS application (ConformU-Installer.dmg) is supplied as a DMG file that self mounts when double clicked and displays a basic GUI. Using this you can drag and drop the application to the Applications folder and can then use it as normal.
- Linux
- The Linux 64bit and Arm 32/64bit versions are supplied as compressed archives (conformu.linux-X.tar.gz) that must be expanded using tar -xf before use. The application can then be run from the command line by the command ./conformu