Fsc2

fsc2 is a program running under GNU/Linux for controlling spectrometers. Programs for remote control of spectrometers usually are home-written and often restricted to doing a certain set of experiments with only a fixed set of devices. In contrast, fsc2 is much more flexible because it was written with three main aims:

This flexibility was achieved by making the program an interpreter for a rather easy to learn but powerful enough scripting language called Experiment Description Language (EDL) and employing a strictly modular approach to the handling of devices. This allows to set up a new experiment or change an already existing one easily without requiring any detailed knowledge of the internals of fsc2 or how exactly devices are controlled by the computer. Everything required is to become acquainted with the EDL scripting language. Moreover, an already working script for an experiment can be swiftly converted to display a graphical user interface for entering the experimental parameters by adding just a few extra lines and converting it via a Perl script (included in the package), thus allowing it to be used immediately also by users not acquainted at all with the EDL language.