Claims
- 1. A method executable within an instrumentation system, comprising:
sending a query message to a message-based instrument; receiving a response from the message-based instrument; and parsing the response, wherein said parsing comprises:
displaying the response; graphically selecting a region of the displayed response in response to user input; and specifying one or more attributes of the selected region; wherein the selected region is configured in accordance with the specified attributes.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said specifying one or more attributes of the selected region configures the selected region as a token in accordance with the specified attributes.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified one or more attributes of the selected region include one or more of data type, byte ordering, position, size, count, name, and scaling.
- 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to said sending the query message, specifying the message-based instrument to receive the query message in response to user input.
- 5. The method of claim 4, wherein specifying the message-based instrument comprises selecting the message-based instrument from a list of two or more instruments coupled to the instrumentation system in response to user input.
- 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
generating a query block after said parsing, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing; and storing the generated query block to memory.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the query block is executable within the instrumentation system to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing.
- 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the query block is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 9. The method of claim 6, wherein the query block is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:
adding the query block to an instrument control application program; executing the instrument control application program; and executing the query block within the instrument control application program to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing.
- 11. The method of claim 6, wherein said parsing generates one or more parsed instrument responses.
- 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying at least a subset of the parsed instrument responses.
- 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing at least a subset of the parsed instrument responses to one or more other objects in the instrument control application program.
- 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
repeating said sending, said receiving and said parsing for a plurality of query messages to the message-based instrument; generating a query block for each of the repetitions, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing as specified for the particular repetition; and
adding the plurality of generated query blocks for each of the repetitions to a task in memory.
- 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the task comprises the plurality of query blocks in a sequence, and wherein the task is executable to execute the plurality of query blocks in the sequence.
- 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the task is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 17. The method of claim 14, wherein the task is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the response is displayed in hexadecimal format.
- 19. The method of claim 1, wherein the response is displayed in ASCII format.
- 20. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a data format of the response, wherein said displaying the response displays the response in accordance with the determined data format.
- 21. The method of claim 19, wherein the data format is one of hexadecimal and ASCII.
- 22. The method of claim 1, wherein said displaying the response displays the response in accordance with a data format, the method further comprising:
after said specifying one or more attributes of the selected region, changing the displayed response to another data format in response to user input; and
wherein the selected region is configured in accordance with the specified attributes after said changing.
- 23. The method of claim 1, further comprising tokenizing the response prior to said graphically selecting the region.
- 24. The method of claim 1, wherein the response is an ASCII response, wherein said displaying the response displays the response as one or more ASCII tokens generated by said tokenizing.
- 25. The method of claim 1, wherein said specifying the one or more attributes of the selected region is performed in response to user input.
- 26. A method executable within an instrumentation system, comprising:
generating a plurality of query blocks, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within the instrumentation system to:
connect with a message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response; adding each of the plurality of query blocks to a task in memory.
- 27. The method of claim 26, further comprising executing the task within the instrumentation system, wherein said executing comprises:
executing each of the plurality of query blocks within the instrumentation system, wherein said executing each of the plurality of query blocks comprises:
connecting with the message-based instrument; sending a query message of the particular query block to the message-based instrument; receiving a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parsing the received response; and outputting results of said parsing the received response.
- 28. The method of claim 27, further comprising executing the plurality of query blocks in a sequence specified in the task.
- 29. The method of claim 27, further comprising displaying a textual representation of at least a portion of the results of said parsing the received response.
- 30. The method of claim 27, further comprising displaying a graphical representation of at least a portion of the results of said parsing the received response.
- 31. The method of claim 27, further comprising providing at least a portion of the results of said parsing the received response to one or more other objects in the instrument control application program.
- 32. The method of claim 26, wherein, in said generating the plurality of query blocks, the method further comprises, for each query block:
connecting with the message-based instrument; sending a query message to the message-based instrument for the particular query block; receiving a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; displaying the response; graphically selecting a region of the displayed response in response to user input; and specifying one or more attributes of the selected region; wherein the selected region is configured as a token in accordance with the specified attributes..
- 33. The method of claim 26, wherein the task is configured to be exported to other systems.
- 34. The method of claim 26, wherein each of the plurality of query blocks is configured to be exported to other systems.
- 35. The method of claim 26, wherein the task is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 36. The method of claim 26, wherein the task is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 37. An instrumentation system comprising:
a computing device comprising:
a processor; and a memory; a message-based instrument coupled to the computing device; a unit under test coupled to the message-based instrument; wherein the memory comprised in the computing device comprises program instructions executable within the computing device to:
send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response from the message-based instrument; and parse the response; wherein, to parse the response, the program instructions are further executable to:
display the response; graphically select one or more regions of the displayed response in response to user input; specify one or more attributes for each selected region; and configure each selected region as a token in accordance with the specified one or more attributes of the particular selected region.
- 38. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the specified one or more attributes of each selected region include one or more of data type, byte ordering, position, size, count, name, and scaling.
- 39. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the program instructions are further executable to specify the message-based instrument to receive the query message in response to user input.
- 40. The instrumentation system of claim 39, wherein, to specify the message-based instrument, the program instructions are further executable to select the message-based instrument from a list of two or more instruments coupled to the instrumentation system in response to user input.
- 41. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the message-based instrument is one of one or more message-based instruments coupled to the computing device, wherein, prior to said sending the query message, the program instructions are further executable to detect the message-based instrument coupled to the device.
- 42. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the program instructions are further executable to:
generate a query block after said parsing, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing; and store the generated query block to the memory.
- 43. The instrumentation system of claim 42, wherein the query block is executable within the instrumentation system to:
send the query message of the query block to the message-based instrument; receive the response from the message-based instrument; select one or more regions of the response; and configure each of the selected one or more regions as a token in accordance with the specified one or more attributes of the particular region.
- 44. The instrumentation system of claim 42, wherein the query block is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 45. The instrumentation system of claim 42, wherein the query block is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 46. The instrumentation system of claim 42, wherein the program instructions are further executable to:
add the query block to an instrument control application program stored in the memory; execute the instrument control application program; and execute the query block within the instrument control application program to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing.
- 47. The instrumentation system of claim 46, wherein said parsing during execution of the query block generates a parsed instrument response.
- 48. The instrumentation system of claim 47, further comprising displaying the parsed instrument response.
- 49. The instrumentation system of claim 47, further comprising providing the parsed instrument response to one or more other objects in the instrument control application program.
- 50. The instrumentation system of claim 42, wherein the query block is configured to be exported to other instrumentation systems.
- 51. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the program instructions are further executable to:
repeat said sending, said receiving and said parsing for a plurality of query messages to the message-based instrument; generate a query block for each of the repetitions, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing as specified for the particular repetition; and add the plurality of generated query blocks for each of the repetitions to a task in the memory.
- 52. The instrumentation system of claim 51, wherein the task comprises the plurality of query blocks in a sequence, wherein the task is executable within the instrumentation system, and wherein, in said executing within the computer system, the task is configured to execute the plurality of query blocks in the sequence.
- 53. The instrumentation system of claim 51, wherein the task is configured to be exportable to other instrumentation systems.
- 54. The instrumentation system of claim 51, wherein the task is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 55. The instrumentation system of claim 51, wherein the task is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 56. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the response is displayed in a hexadecimal format.
- 57. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the response is displayed in an ASCII format.
- 58. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the message-based instrument is a GPIB instrument.
- 59. The instrumentation system of claim 37, wherein the message-based instrument is a serial instrument.
- 60. A carrier medium comprising program instructions executable within an instrumentation system, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:
sending a query message to a message-based instrument; receiving a response from the message-based instrument; and parsing the response, wherein said parsing comprises:
displaying the response; graphically selecting a region of the displayed response in response to user input; and specifying one or more attributes of the selected region; wherein the selected region is configured in accordance with the specified attributes.
- 61. The carrier medium of claim 60, wherein said specifying one or more attributes of the selected region configures the selected region as a token in accordance with the specified attributes.
- 62. The carrier medium of claim 60, wherein the specified one or more attributes of the selected region include one or more of data type, byte ordering, position, size, count, name, and scaling.
- 63. The carrier medium of claim 60, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement, prior to said sending the query message, specifying the message-based instrument to receive the query message in response to user input.
- 64. The carrier medium of claim 63, wherein, in said specifying the message-based instrument, the program instructions are further executable to implement selecting the message-based instrument from a list of two or more instruments coupled to the instrumentation system in response to user input.
- 65. The carrier medium of claim 60, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
generating a query block after said parsing, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing; and storing the generated query block to memory; wherein the query block is executable within the instrumentation system to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing.
- 66. The carrier medium of claim 65, wherein the query block is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 67. The carrier medium of claim 65, wherein the query block is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 68. The carrier medium of claim 65, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
adding the query block to an instrument control application program; executing the instrument control application program; and executing the query block within the instrument control application program to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing.
- 69. The carrier medium of claim 60, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
repeating said sending, said receiving and said parsing for a plurality of query messages to the message-based instrument; generating a query block for each of the repetitions, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said parsing as specified for the particular repetition; and adding the plurality of generated query blocks for each of the repetitions to a task in memory; wherein the task comprises the plurality of query blocks in a sequence, and wherein the task is executable to execute the plurality of query blocks in the sequence.
- 70. The carrier medium of claim 69, wherein the task is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 71. The carrier medium of claim 69, wherein the task is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 72. The carrier medium of claim 60, wherein the response is displayed in one of a hexadecimal format and an ASCII format.
- 73. A method executable within an instrumentation system, comprising:
sending a query message to a message-based instrument; receiving a response from the message-based instrument; parsing the response, wherein said parsing comprises:
determining one or more attributes of the response; and tokenizing the response, wherein said tokenizing configures the response as one or more tokens configured in accordance with the determined attributes; displaying the response; and displaying the tokenized response.
- 74. The method of claim 73, wherein the determined one or more attributes of the response include one or more of data type, byte ordering, position, size, count, name, and scaling.
- 75. The method of claim 73, wherein the response is one of an ASCII response or a hexadecimal response.
- 76. The method of claim 73, further comprising:
graphically selecting a region of the displayed response in response to user input; graphically modifying one or more of the attributes of the selected region in response to user input; and tokenizing the selected region, wherein said tokenizing configures the selected region as a token in accordance with the modified attributes.
- 77. The method of claim 73, further comprising:
generating a query block after said parsing, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing; and storing the generated query block to memory.
- 78. The method of claim 77, wherein the query block is executable within the instrumentation system to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing.
- 79. The method of claim 77, wherein the query block is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 80. The method of claim 77, wherein the query block is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 81. The method of claim 77, further comprising:
adding the query block to an instrument control application program; executing the instrument control application program; and executing the query block within the instrument control application program to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing.
- 82. The method of claim 77, wherein said tokenizing generates one or more tokenized instrument responses as output.
- 83. An instrumentation system comprising:
a computing device comprising:
a processor; and a memory; a message-based instrument coupled to the computing device; a unit under test coupled to the message-based instrument; wherein the memory comprised in the computing device comprises program instructions executable within the computing device to:
send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response from the message-based instrument; parse the response, wherein said parsing comprises:
determine one or more attributes of the response; and tokenize the response, wherein said tokenizing configures the response as one or more tokens configured in accordance with the determined attributes; display the response; and display the tokenized response.
- 84. The instrumentation system of claim 83, wherein the determined one or more attributes of the response include one or more of data type, byte ordering, position, size, count, name, and scaling.
- 85. The instrumentation system of claim 83, wherein the response is one of an ASCII response or a hexadecimal response.
- 86. The instrumentation system of claim 83, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to:
receive user input to graphically select a region of the displayed response; receive user input to graphically modify one or more of the attributes of the selected region; and tokenize the selected region, wherein said tokenizing configures the selected region as a token in accordance with the modified attributes.
- 87. The instrumentation system of claim 83, further comprising:
generate a query block after said parsing, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing; and store the generated query block to memory.
- 88. The instrumentation system of claim 87, wherein the query block is executable within the instrumentation system to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing.
- 89. The instrumentation system of claim 87, wherein the query block is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 90. The instrumentation system of claim 87, wherein the query block is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 91. The instrumentation system of claim 87, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to:
add the query block to an instrument control application program; execute the instrument control application program; and execute the query block within the instrument control application program to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing.
- 92. The instrumentation system of claim 87, wherein, to tokenize the selected region, the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to generate one or more tokenized instrument responses as output of said tokenizing.
- 93. A carrier medium comprising program instructions executable within an instrumentation system, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:
sending a query message to a message-based instrument; receiving a response from the message-based instrument; parsing the response, wherein said parsing comprises:
determining one or more attributes of the response; and tokenizing the response, wherein said tokenizing configures the response as one or more tokens configured in accordance with the determined attributes; displaying the response; and displaying the tokenized response.
- 94. The carrier medium of claim 93, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
graphically selecting a region of the displayed response in response to user input; graphically modifying one or more of the attributes of the selected region in response to user input; and tokenizing the selected region, wherein said tokenizing configures the selected region as a token in accordance with the modified attributes.
- 95. The carrier medium of claim 93, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
generating a query block after said parsing, wherein the query block comprises program instructions that are executable to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing; and storing the generated query block to memory.
- 96. The carrier medium of claim 95, wherein the query block is executable within the instrumentation system to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing.
- 97. The carrier medium of claim 95, wherein the query block is a graphical object configured for use in a graphical programming environment.
- 98. The carrier medium of claim 95, wherein the query block is a text-based module configured for use in a textual programming environment.
- 99. The carrier medium of claim 95, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
adding the query block to an instrument control application program; executing the instrument control application program; and executing the query block within the instrument control application program to interact with the selected message-based instrument to perform said sending, said receiving, and said tokenizing; wherein said tokenizing generates one or more tokenized instrument responses as output.
- 100. A method executable within an instrumentation system, comprising:
generating a plurality of query blocks in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within an instrumentation system to:
connect with a message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response; graphically sequencing the plurality of query blocks in an order of execution in response to user input; and storing the sequenced plurality of query blocks in a task.
- 101. The method of claim 100, further comprising executing the task within the instrumentation system.
- 102. The method of claim 101, wherein said executing the task within the instrumentation system comprises executing each of the plurality of query blocks in the sequenced order of execution within the instrumentation system.
- 103. The method of claim 102, wherein said executing each of the plurality of query blocks comprises:
connecting with the message-based instrument; sending a query message of the particular query block to the message-based instrument; receiving a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parsing the received response; and outputting results of said parsing the received response.
- 104. The method of claim 101, wherein, in said executing the task within the instrumentation system, the method further comprises the task querying the message-based instrument to determine one or more characteristics or states of the instrument, wherein said querying is performed without user input.
- 105. The method of claim 100, further comprising:
graphically displaying the task; and adding the task to another task in response to user input, wherein the task is a subtask of the other task.
- 106. The method of claim 105, further comprising:
graphically displaying the other task; and graphically displaying the task within the displayed other task as a subtask of the other task.
- 107. The method of claim 106, further comprising expanding the subtask of the other task to graphically display the plurality of query blocks within the displayed other task in response to user input.
- 108. The method of claim 107, further comprising graphically modifying one or more of the plurality of query blocks displayed within the other task in response to user input.
- 109. The method of claim 108, further comprising executing the other task in response to said modifying one or more of the plurality of query blocks.
- 110. The method of claim 105, wherein the other task comprises one or more other subtasks.
- 111. The method of claim 105, wherein the other task further comprises one or more other query blocks.
- 112. The method of claim 105, further comprising executing the other task within the instrumentation system, wherein said executing the other task within the instrumentation system comprises executing the subtask within the instrumentation system.
- 113. The method of claim 100, further comprising exporting the task to another computer system.
- 114. The method of claim 100, further comprising displaying the task on a website for downloading to other instrumentation systems.
- 115. The method of claim 100, further comprising:
graphically displaying the task; graphically displaying one or more other tasks with the displayed task.
- 116. An instrumentation system comprising:
a computing device comprising:
a processor; and a memory; a message-based instrument coupled to the computing device; a unit under test coupled to the message-based instrument; wherein the memory comprised in the computing device comprises program instructions executable within the computing device to:
generate a plurality of query blocks in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within an instrumentation system to:
connect with a message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response; graphically sequence the plurality of query blocks in an order of execution in response to user input; and store the sequenced plurality of query blocks in a task in memory.
- 117. The instrumentation system of claim 116, wherein the task is executable within the instrumentation system, and wherein, in said executing the task, each of the plurality of query blocks is configured to be executed in the sequenced order of execution within the instrumentation system to perform said connecting, said connecting, said sending, said receiving, said parsing, and said outputting.
- 118. The instrumentation system of claim 117, wherein, in said executing the task within the instrumentation system, the task is executable to query the message-based instrument to determine one or more characteristics or states of the instrument, wherein said querying is performed without user input.
- 119. The instrumentation system of claim 116, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to:
graphically display the task; and add the task to another task in response to user input, wherein the task is a subtask of the other task.
- 120. The instrumentation system of claim 119, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to:
graphically display the other task; and graphically display the task within the displayed other task as a subtask of the other task.
- 121. The instrumentation system of claim 120, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to expand the subtask of the other task to graphically display the plurality of query blocks within the displayed other task in response to user input.
- 122. The instrumentation system of claim 121, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to graphically modify one or more of the plurality of query blocks displayed within the other task in response to user input.
- 123. The instrumentation system of claim 122, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to execute the other task in response to said modifying one or more of the plurality of query blocks.
- 124. The instrumentation system of claim 119, wherein the other task comprises one or more of other subtasks and other query blocks.
- 125. The instrumentation system of claim 119, wherein the other task is executable within the instrumentation system, wherein, in said executing the other task within the instrumentation system, the subtask is configured to be executed within the instrumentation system, and wherein, in said executing the subtask, each of the plurality of query blocks is configured to be executed in the sequenced order of execution within the instrumentation system to perform said connecting, said connecting, said sending, said receiving, said parsing, and said outputting.
- 126. The instrumentation system of claim 116, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to export the task to another computer system.
- 127. The instrumentation system of claim 116, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to:
graphically display the task; and graphically display one or more other tasks with the displayed task.
- 128. A carrier medium comprising program instructions executable within an instrumentation system, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:
generating a plurality of query blocks in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within an instrumentation system to:
connect with a message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response; graphically sequencing the plurality of query blocks in an order of execution in response to user input; and storing the sequenced plurality of query blocks in a task.
- 129. The carrier medium of claim 128, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement executing the task within the instrumentation system.
- 130. The carrier medium of claim 129, wherein said executing the task within the instrumentation system comprises executing each of the plurality of query blocks in the sequenced order of execution within the instrumentation system.
- 131. The carrier medium of claim 130, wherein, in said executing each of the plurality of query blocks, the program instructions are further executable to implement:
connecting with the message-based instrument; sending a query message of the particular query block to the message-based instrument; receiving a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parsing the received response; and outputting results of said parsing the received response.
- 132. The carrier medium of claim 129, wherein, in said executing the task within the instrumentation system, the program instructions are further executable to implement the task querying the message-based instrument to determine one or more characteristics or states of the instrument, wherein said querying is performed without user input.
- 133. The carrier medium of claim 128, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
graphically displaying the task; and adding the task to another task in response to user input, wherein the task is a subtask of the other task.
- 134. The carrier medium of claim 133, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
graphically displaying the other task; and graphically displaying the task within the displayed other task as a subtask of the other task.
- 135. The carrier medium of claim 134, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:
expanding the subtask of the other task to graphically display the plurality of query blocks within the displayed other task in response to user input; and graphically modifying one or more of the plurality of query blocks displayed within the other task in response to user input.
- 136. The carrier medium of claim 135, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement executing the other task in response to said graphically modifying one or more of the plurality of query blocks.
- 137. The carrier medium of claim 133, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement executing the other task within the instrumentation system, wherein said executing the other task within the instrumentation system comprises executing the subtask within the instrumentation system.
- 138. The carrier medium of claim 128, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement exporting the task to another computer system.
- 139. A method executable within an instrumentation system, comprising:
generating a task object in response to user input; graphically adding the task object to an instrument control application program; invoking a user interface for graphically editing the task object in response to user input; graphically generating one or more query blocks using the user interface in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within an instrumentation system to:
connect with a message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response; and graphically adding the one or more query blocks to the task object.
- 140. The method of claim 139, further comprising graphically linking the task object to one or more other object in the instrument control application program.
- 141. The method of claim 139, further comprising executing the instrument control application program within the instrumentation system, wherein, in said executing the instrument control application program, the method further comprises executing the task object within the instrumentation system.
- 142. The method of claim 141, wherein said executing the task object within the instrumentation system comprises executing each of the plurality of query blocks in the sequenced order of execution within the instrumentation system.
- 143. The method of claim 142, wherein said executing each of the plurality of query blocks comprises:
connecting with the message-based instrument; sending a query message of the particular query block to the message-based instrument; receiving a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parsing the received response; and outputting results of said parsing the received response.
- 144. The method of claim 139, further comprising graphically adding another task object to the task object as a subtask of the task object.
- 145. The method of claim 139, further comprising graphically adding the task object to another task object as a subtask of the other task object.
- 146. An instrumentation system comprising:
a computing device comprising:
a processor; and a memory; a message-based instrument coupled to the computing device; a unit under test coupled to the message-based instrument; wherein the memory comprised in the computing device comprises program instructions executable within the computing device to:
generate a task object in response to user input; graphically add the task object to an instrument control application program; invoke a user interface for graphically editing the task object in response to user input; graphically generate one or more query blocks using the user interface in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within an instrumentation system to:
connect with a message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response; and graphically add the one or more query blocks to the task object.
- 147. The instrumentation system of claim 146, wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to graphically link the task object to one or more other object in the instrument control application program.
- 148. The instrumentation system of claim 146, wherein the instrument control application program is executable within the instrumentation system, wherein, in said executing the instrument control application program, the task object is configured to be executed within the instrumentation system.
- 149. The instrumentation system of claim 148, wherein, in executing the task object within the instrumentation system, each of the plurality of query blocks are configured to be executed in the sequenced order of execution within the instrumentation system to perform said connecting, said sending, said receiving, said parsing, and said outputting.
- 150. A carrier medium comprising program instructions executable within an instrumentation system, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:
generating a task object in response to user input; graphically adding the task object to an instrument control application program; invoking a user interface for graphically editing the task object in response to user input; graphically generating one or more query blocks using the user interface in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within an instrumentation system to:
connect with a message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response; and graphically adding the one or more query blocks to the task object.
- 151. The carrier medium of claim 150, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement graphically linking the task object to one or more other object in the instrument control application program.
- 152. The carrier medium of claim 150, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement executing the instrument control application program within the instrumentation system, wherein, in said executing the instrument control application program, the method further comprises executing the task object within the instrumentation system.
- 153. The carrier medium of claim 152, wherein, in said executing the task object within the instrumentation system, the program instructions are further executable to implement executing each of the plurality of query blocks in the sequenced order of execution within the instrumentation system.
- 154. The carrier medium of claim 153, wherein, in said executing each of the plurality of query blocks, the program instructions are further executable to implement:
connecting with the message-based instrument; sending a query message of the particular query block to the message-based instrument; receiving a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parsing the received response; and outputting results of said parsing the received response.
- 155. A method executable within an instrumentation system, comprising:
scanning for message based instruments coupled to the instrumentation system; said scanning detecting at least a subset of the message based instruments coupled to the instrumentation system; displaying information identifying the at least a subset of the message based instruments; selecting one of the displayed message based instruments in response to user input; and generating one or more query blocks in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within the instrumentation system to:
connect with the selected message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response.
- 156. The method of claim 155, wherein said scanning does not detect one or more of the message based instruments, the method further comprising scanning for the undetected message based instruments in response to user input.
- 157. The method of claim 156, wherein said scanning for the undetected message based instruments comprises using one or more resource expert programs to scan for instruments not detectable by said scanning for message based instruments.
- 158. The method of claim 157, wherein the resource expert programs include one or more of a GPIB resource expert program, a serial resource expert program and a VISA resource expert program.
- 159. The method of claim 155, wherein said scanning is initiated in response to user input.
- 160. The method of claim 155, wherein said scanning does not detect one or more of the message based instruments, the method further comprising adding one or more undetected message based instruments as specified in user input.
- 161. The method of claim 160, wherein the user input includes a VISA resource string specifying an undetected message based instrument.
- 162. An instrumentation system comprising:
a computing device comprising:
a processor; and a memory; a message-based instrument coupled to the computing device; a unit under test coupled to the message-based instrument; wherein the memory comprised in the computing device comprises program instructions executable within the computing device to:
scan for message based instruments coupled to the instrumentation system; detect at least a subset of the message based instruments coupled to the instrumentation system in response to said scanning; display information identifying the at least a subset of the message based instruments; select one of the displayed message based instruments in response to user input; and generate one or more query blocks in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within the instrumentation system to:
connect with the selected message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response
- 163. The instrumentation system of claim 162, wherein said scanning does not detect one or more of the message based instruments, and wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to scan for the undetected message based instruments in response to user input.
- 164. The instrumentation system of claim 163, wherein, in said scanning for the undetected message based instruments, the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to use one or more resource expert programs to scan for instruments not detectable by said scanning for message based instruments.
- 165. The instrumentation system of claim 164, wherein the resource expert programs include one or more of a GPIB resource expert program, a serial resource expert program and a VISA resource expert program.
- 166. The instrumentation system of claim 162, wherein said scanning does not detect one or more of the message based instruments, and wherein the program instructions are further executable within the computing device to:
receive user input specifying one or more undetected message based instruments; and add the specified one or more instruments to the detected instruments.
- 167. A carrier medium comprising program instructions executable within an instrumentation system, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:
scanning for message based instruments coupled to the instrumentation system; said scanning detecting at least a subset of the message based instruments coupled to the instrumentation system; displaying information identifying the at least a subset of the message based instruments; selecting one of the displayed message based instruments in response to user input; and generating one or more query blocks in response to user input, wherein each query block comprises program instructions executable within the instrumentation system to:
connect with the selected message-based instrument; send a query message to the message-based instrument; receive a response to the query message from the message-based instrument; parse the response; and output results of said parsing the response
- 168. The carrier medium of claim 167, wherein said scanning does not detect one or more of the message based instruments, and wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement scanning for the undetected message based instruments in response to user input.
- 169. The carrier medium of claim 168, wherein, in said scanning for the undetected message based instruments, the program instructions are further executable to implement using one or more resource expert programs to scan for instruments not detectable by said scanning for message based instruments.
- 170. The carrier medium of claim 169, wherein the resource expert programs include one or more of a GPIB resource expert program, a serial resource expert program and a VISA resource expert program.
- 171. The carrier medium of claim 167, wherein said scanning does not detect one or more of the message based instruments, and wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement adding one or more undetected message based instruments as specified in user input.
PRIORITY CLAIM
[0001] This application claims benefit of priority of U.S. provisional application Serial No. 60/312,257 titled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling an Instrumentation System” filed Aug. 14, 2001, whose inventors are David W Fuller III, Christopher G. Cifra and Thomas V. Connell Jr.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60312257 |
Aug 2001 |
US |