SCPI: How popular is it among you?

[RoGeorge]

Bumped into an open source SCPI parser by accident:
https://www.jaybee.cz/scpi-parser/

[Selectech]

This one is not free, but is fairly low cost and easy to modify / adapt ( you get the source ).

https://jpacsoft.com/

Used it a few times to save months of time on some projects. Well documented & it works.

[Berni]

This functionality (being able to "sniff" the SCPI commands) is actually becoming fairly widespread among test and measurement instrument manufacturers.  Some instruments even have a web-based interface that allows you to display and save all SCPI "traffic" regardless of where it's coming from or which VISA implementation is being used.  And some instruments will log SCPI activity locally to a file on the instrument as well.

Another useful feature you'll find on some vendors' instruments is a "SCPI recorder" that monitors what you do via the GUI and then creates a text file with the corresponding SCPI commands -- saves a lot of time looking up and formatting commands 

https://scdn.rohde-schwarz.com/ur/pws/dl_downloads/dl_application/application_notes/1gp98/1GP98_2E_SCPI_Recorder.pdf

I heard of logging before but i never used it. I just find it convenient using KeysightIO to be able to see SCPI commands streaming live in a console to aid in seeing what is going on. Being able to just type a command in that console and have it sent over is also useful in testing a command quickly to see if it does what you wanted it to do.

As for SCPI recording from the UI, that does look really nice. Yet i have never seen it before, maybe it is more of a R&S thing. I mostly have gear from Keysight and Rigol.

Back in the day HP liked to include BASIC on some of the bigger test gear, so that the script can run on the unit itself or even control other test gear over GPIB. Never actually used it since none of my dinosaur gear came with that option installed. These days the big test gear runs Windows anyway.