Linux implementation of VISA API

Question

Do you know any Linux implementations of Virtual Instrument Software Architecture? Even simple and restricted? Free and open-source implementations are preferred.

Only implementation I know is NI VISA which is non-free and closed-source. Moreover, it runs on very limited number of Linux distributions. I don't know whether it is possible to run it on Debian, for instance.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Well, what do you need it to do? I have been working on a pure Python instrument library that can communicate over several different protocols (serial, VXI-11 (LXI), GPIB (linux-gpib), and PyVISA) called python-ivi, located here: http://www.github.com/alexforencich/python-ivi . It is an interpretation of the Interchangeable Virtual Instruments specification. It's not VISA, though, so if you specifically need VISA, it's not going to help you.

It's written in python 3 and tested in linux, but it should be cross-platform as it is pure python. The implementation of VXI-11 in python-vxi11 is also pure python and therefore should also be cross-platform.

The project is still in relatively early development in terms of the higher-level drivers and abstractions, but it does basically everything PyVISA does for low-level interfacing.