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Getting Staned Programming
Definitions of Terms
Standard Notation
This section uses several forms of notation that have specific meaning.
Command Mnemonics
Many commands have both a long and a short form, and you must use either
one or the other (SCPI does not accept a combination of the two). Consider
the FREQuency command,for example. The short form is FREQ and the long
form is FREQUENCY (this notation style is a shorthand to document both the
long and short form of commands). SCPI is not case sensitive, so fREquEnCy
is just as valid as FREQUENCY, but FREQ and FREQUENCY are the only valid
forms of the FREQuency command.
Angle Brackets
Angle brackets indicate that the word or words enclosed represent something
other than themselves. For example, <new line> represents the ASCII
character with the decimal value 10. Siruilarly, <'END> means that EOI is
asserted on the HP-II3 interface. Words in angle brackets have much more
rigidly defined meaning than words used in ordinary text. For example, this
section uses the word "message" to talk about messages generally. But the
bracketed words <program message> indicate a precisely dellned element of
SCPI. If you need them, you can find the exact definitions of words such as
<program message> in a syntax diagram.
How to Use Examples
It is important to understand that progr amming with SCPI actually requires
knowledge of two languages. You must know the programming language of
your controller (BASIC, C, Pascal) as well as the language of your instrument
(SCPI). The semantic requirements of your controller's language determine
how the SCPI commands and responses are handled in your application.
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