Teledyne waverunner mxi-a series, Getting Started Manual, Page: 93 / 128

Getting Started Manual
922138-00 Rev A 85
B
Automation
Refer to the Automation Manual supplied on CD with your oscilloscope for
more information.
In addition to supporting the familiar ASCII-based remote commands that have
been used to control all Teledyne LeCroy oscilloscopes for many years, all of
the Windows-based X-Stream instruments fully-support control by
Automation interfaces based on Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM).
Using COM, the controlling application can run directly on the instrument
without requiring an external controller. Alternatively, it can run using
Microsoft’s distributed COM standard (DCOM) on a networked computer.
Standards
Automation is a Microsoft technology, formerly referred to as OLE
Automation, primarily used to enable cross-application macro programming. It
is based upon the Component Object Model (COM), which is similar in nature
to CORBA, more commonly found in the UNIX world.
An application that exposes Automation Objects is referred to as an
Automation Server . Automation Objects expose Automation Interfaces to the
controlling Automation Client . This manual describes these Automation
objects and interfaces in detail.
It is important to note that Automation itself is not software language
dependent. Meaning, it can be used from any programming language that
supporting COM. Teledyne LeCroy’s usage concentrates mainly on the use of
Automation from the Visual Basic Script (VBScript) language. This is largely
because it is one of the easiest to use, it is the language that X-Stream
instruments use for setup files, and the VBScript interpreter is installed by
default on all X-Stream instruments. So, this is all available without having to
purchase any additional software.