ATEasy's internal library is based on Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) technology. This is a software architecture that allows software components made by different vendors to be combined into a variety of applications using different programming languages. COM allows you to describe programming components in type libraries. These libraries can be imported and used by programming environments such as ATEasy. ATEasy is supplied with a library called the Internal Library. The internal library contains the following components:
● Classes are objects containing data and procedures grouped together. Class data members are retrieved and set using Properties. These Properties can be considered as variables, which can be set or retrieved by using functions. Procedures in classes are called Methods and are used to perform actions on the object. Classes also contain Events that are called when the object notifies the application that a certain event has occurred. Examples of ATEasy classes are the ADriver class providing access to driver properties set by the user at the design time, the AForm class providing a window, and more.
● Controls are classes adhering to specific COM standards to provide design and run-time behavior when placed on a form to provide a user interface component. Examples of the internal library controls are: the AButton control that displays a button and provides notification when the button is pressed (OnClick event), the AChart control used to display charts, and more.
● Procedures are used when writing code in procedures and tests. The internal library is supplied with many procedures. The procedures are divided into groups that are called Library Modules. The internal library has modules used for mathematical calculations, string manipulation, file I/O, GPIB, VXI, serial communication, port I/O, DDE, and more.
● Variables provide the application with a way to get, set, and perform actions on your application components. These include TestResult and TestStatus that provide a way to set the test result and test status; objects such as the Test object that provide a way to the application to get and set the current test properties; and more.
● Types are data types defined by ATEasy and used by the internal library classes, procedures and variables. An example is the enumATestStatus providing the various constants for the TestStatus variable.
The internal library can be browsed under the Libraries submodule. You can expand the Internal library components. You can retrieve help on any item that you see in the internal library by pressing the F1 key.