PyVISA 1.5 is out

PyVISA is a Python wrapper for the VISA library that enables controlling all kinds of measurement equipment through GPIB, RS232, USB and Ethernet. It has served the instrumentation community very well since 2005 (that's Python 2.3!) and still does.

However, Python and the different supported platforms have changed a lot in the recent years. We thought that PyVISA could use an update. Within the Lantz Project we did a small proof of principle of such update in visalib. Now we are taking what worked well and use it into PyVISA 1.5 (without changing the API!). In other words, PyVISA 1.5 brings several important changes in the underlying architecture without forcing you to change the programs.

Some time ago I posted that we were going beta. Now PyVISA 1.5 is finally released.

The new architecture is summarized here and the comparison with the previous one is here. Briefly you get Python 3 support, Mac OS X support, a better way to find libraries in your platform, an isolated ctypes wrapper. But the most important change is that the VISA library is not opened on import anymore. You can still use the instrument and get_instruments_list helpers (although we encourage not to do it!), but under the hood they will only instantiate a VisaLibrary object when you need them. We think that this will lead to more explicit and clear code, easier to deploy and to upgrade. There other small goodies around. Take a look at the docs.

You can install PyVISA or upgrade your previous version using pip:
 
 $ pip install -U pyvisa

This release is only possible thanks to the contribution of a lot of people that contributed bug reports, testing and code. Thanks to everybody!

We are moving forward to make PyVISA even better. Submit your bug reports, comments and suggestions in the Issue Tracker. We will address them promptly.

Read the docs: http://pyvisa.readthedocs.org/
or fork the code: https:/https://github.com/hgrecco/pyvisa/

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