Colon
When it is between two command mnemonics, a colon moves the
current path down one level in the command tree. For example,
the colon in
MEAS:VOLT
species that
VOLT
is one level below
MEAS
.
When the colon is the rst character of a command, it species
that the next command mnemonic is a ro ot level command. For
example, the colon in
:INIT
species that
INIT
is a ro ot level
command.
Semicolon
A semicolon separates two commands in the same message without
changing the current path.
Whitespace
White space characters, suchas
<tab>
and
<space>
, are generally
ignored. There are two imp ortant exceptions. White space inside a
keyword, suchas
:FREQ uency
, is not allo wed. You must use white
space to separate parameters from commands. F
or example, the
<space>
between LEVel and 6.2 in the command
:POWer:LEVel
6.2
is mandatory. White space does not aect the curren
t path.
Commas
If a command requires more than one parameter, y
ou must
separate adjacent parameters using a comma. Commas do not
aect the current path.
Common Commands
Common commands, suchas
*RST
, are not part of any subsystem.
An instrumentinterprets them in the same way, regardless of the
current path setting.
Figure 1-26 shows examples of how to use the colon and semicolon to
navigate eciently through the command tree.
Getting Started Programming 1-69