Ascii interface

Observers must have a high level interpreted language for interacting with the system. This language must allow the user to do the following :

$\surd$

setup an observing schedule in a simple manner,

$\surd$

support most flow-control constructs (e.g. if then else, while do, repeat until, for do)

$\surd$

be easily extensible,

$\surd$

support functions/subroutines,

$\surd$

support the definition of global and local variables,

$\surd$

the language must be ascii based.

Examples of such a language are TK/TCL, OBS, SPEC, IDL and interpreted C to mention a few.

The observing language has to interact with the scheduler in the same manner as all other observing programs. It must be possible to have more than one interactive session running simultaneously without any conflicts.