SE_DataBus

Space Engineers: Encapsulates a protocol to allow programs to communicate by shared static strings.

This project is configured to be built within a separate IDE to allow for error checking, code completion etc.. Only the section in #region CodeEditor should be copied into the Space Engineers editor. This region has been automatically extracted into the corresponding txt file.

This is a utility designed to be incoporated into other programs; by itself, it won't do anything interesting.

##Description

Encapsulates operations that allow data to be safely stored and retrieved through a shared text field (e.g. TextPanel fields).

• Static fields hold data for as long as it's needed
• Temporary fields operate as a FIFO queue

This allows for several behaviours not directly achieveable by parameterisation:

• Export data to be used by unspecified sources
  • e.g. a common system clock allowing synchronisation/timing
  • e.g. ship attitude/position, calculated once, used by different systems
• Allow multiple sources to send commands to one block
  • (Programs cannot execute more than once per physics tick, so multiple commands send at the same time get lost. This may be annoying, or downright dangerous.)
  • e.g. a program running off a 60Hz clock will not accept any new parameters as it is always busy running
• Allow programs to communicate at their own rates
  • parameters/commands may be passed independently of execution
• Allow programs to communicate across space
  • storage in block data can be saved, moved, and read back in entirely different ships or bases
• Inherently non-volatile
  • storage in block data isn't affected by re-initialisation
• More expressive parameter/command usage
  • no longer tied to combining paremeters into one string; easily queue multiple commands
  • easily have access to the most recent data without saving a copy locally each time

I'm sure there are plenty more creative things you could do with this.

##Hardware

Block(s)	number	Configurable
Text Panel	single	variable; see below
(*Text Panel type includes LCD Screens)

##Configuration

• Text Panel PublicText is an example, but any string will work so long as the internal storage interface is updated (all 3 lines of it: read, write, append).
• lengthId: how many characters are required for the Id

##Extensibility

• Any type can be stored, so long as they can be encoded/decoded from a string, and ensured not to contain the record terminator. The main logic is encapsulated in procedures taking strings as arguments.