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Script generator
The muons have at least 3 different script generators. All of these are fundamentally table-based systems with varying degrees of functionality
Inter has a script generator called MaxScript. It has fallen out of use because it is not easy to integrate with the SECI system. Scientists from Inter expressed the desire for the script generator to be able to talk to the script server directly, with feedback (for example, greying out completed rows where a row represents an experimental measurement).
The Inter script generator can also display the script in a "tree" view - this collapses each run into a short recognisable string, and the details can be seen by expanding out the tree item.
The Inter script generator provides a time estimate.
LOQ uses a script generator "written by Matt Clarke in VB or C#". The scientists have expressed a desire for the script generator to be fairly simple from a user's perspective.
Most of the existing script generators are table based. Some have additional alternative means of displaying equivalent information (such as a tree view)
All of the script generators I've seen have essentially been setting a small number (2-10) of parameters and then performing some kind of run. The functions to set parameters and do the runs are different for each beamline, so each beamline will need to be able to configure this. It would be advantageous for a scientist to be able to configure this by themselves, without necessarily requiring input from computing.
All of the existing script generators generate a plain text file. However, the overwhelming consensus is that a new script generator should be able to talk to the script server directly, without needing to explicitly generate and then load a script. However, the option to explicitly generate and load a script is still important.
All of the scientists that have been involved in this discussion at all have agreed that feedback from the script server to the GUI is important. Notably, rows should be greyed out in some way once the script server has finished executing that script.
A "nice to have" feature would be to have a dynamically updating countdown of estimated remaining script time. This might be more or less fine grained depending on the implementation.