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Keysight M8131A 16/32 GSa/s Digitizer User’s Guide
4
Remote Programming
Remote Programming Overview
This chapter introduces the basics for remote programming of an M8131A
instrument using SCPI commands.
Instructions
Instructions, both commands and queries, normally appear as strings
embedded in a statement of your host language, such as Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA), Visual Basic .NET, C#, C, etc.
The only time a parameter is not meant to be expressed as a string is when
the instruction's syntax definition specifies <binary_block _data>, such as
with the
:SYSTem:SET
command. There are only a few instructions that
use block data.
Instructions are composed of two main parts:
• The header, which specifies the command or query to be sent.
• The program data, which provides additional information to clarify the
meaning of the instruction.
Instruction Header
The instruction header is one or more command mnemonics separated by
colons (:). They represent the operation to be performed by the
oscilloscope. Queries are formed by adding a question mark (?) to the end
of the header. Many instructions can be used as either commands or
queries, depending on whether or not you include the question mark. The
command and query forms of an instruction usually have different program
data. Many queries do not use any program data.
White Space (Separator)
White space is used to separate the instruction header from the program
data. If the instruction does not require any program data parameters, you
do not need to include any white space. In this manual, white space is
defined as one or more spaces. ASCII defines a space to be character 32 in
decimal.
