Agilent Technologies E4371A, E4370A Language Dictionary, API Usage Guidelines, Blocking Functions

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Language Dictionary

API Usage Guidelines

This Application Programming Interface lets you create an application program on a PC to control the operation of one or more Agilent MCCD units over a LAN. The API consists of a dynamic link library (DLL) that provides a set of driver functions that are called by the application program to access Agilent MCCD features. This section gives the syntax and parameters for all the API cell forming (cf) functions used by the Agilent MCCD.

Operating System and Language Support

The client API library supports Windows 95 and Windows NT. It requires the TCP/IP services that are part of these operating systems to be installed and configured. This API supports only 32-bit applications. Test programs must be written in Microsoft Visual C/C++.

Blocking Functions

All functions in this API are blocking; they do not return until the function operation is complete. Since most functions communicate over the network, they may take a relatively long time to complete. If the calling application has other tasks to perform while the network request is in progress, it should create a thread to service the network connection.

Buffer Management

When an application calls a function, it must allocate any required buffers to pass data to the function. When the function returns, the caller is responsible for de-allocating the buffers.

Sequential Function Calls

All API functions support multithreaded operation. If two threads each make a function call to different Agilent MCCDs, the function calls will be processed concurrently. However, if two threads make a function call to the same Agilent MCCD, the calls are serialized. The function called by the second thread will block until the call made by the first thread completes.

Error Reporting

All functions return CF_OK if successful or a non-zero code if an error occurred. If desired, an error handler function may be registered with the API to allow central error processing. This function will be called whenever an error occurs in any API function.

Number of Server Connections

An Agilent MCCD server lets you connect up to three clients. All three clients have equal capability and all can monitor and control the Agilent MCCD using the API programming functions described in chapter 6. The Web-based Agilent MCCD User Interface uses a separate connection that does not count as one of the three client connections.

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