TMDE Task 05, Information Dynamics MAIDS Technical Report. A Preliminary Design for a New Programming Language for Automatic Test Equipment.

This technical report details the preliminary design for a new language for the description of test procedures and the preparation of test programs to drive automatic test equipment (ATE). The test language described in this report is called the COMPASS Test Language (CTL). The Abbreviated Test Language for Avionics Systems (ATLAS) is used as a basis for this new language design but the new design reflects substantive differences in design philosophy. Five major requirements for a new Test Procedure Oriented higher level language for ATE form the basis for the new design. These include the features of linguistic strength or completeness, grammatical simplicity, language extensibility, compilability and adaptability. (Author)