Oops! I just wrote this:
+---------------
| ...          But when I wrote 'scope loops[1] in Tcl
| they were *so* sloooowwww that I had turn turn off the lights
| to see the triggered traces on the oscilloscope.
+---------------

But forgot to supply the footnote:

[1] A "'scope loop" or "oscilloscope loop" is a (usually short)
    piece of code that pokes at the hardware in such a way that
    you can synchronize the trace of an oscilloscope to its effect,
    and then observe [on the 'scope] the response to the poking
    the loop gave it. A frequent useful loop at the very beginning
    of bringing up a new piece of hardware is:

	(loop until (listen) do
	  (reset-hardware)		; Poke, then release, the RESET# wire
	  (dotimes (i SOME-NUMBER))	; Increase this as you debug further
	  (trigger-scope)		; By POKE'ing some other location
	  (sleep 0.001))		; [Or larger, as suits]


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock			<rpw3@rpw3.org>
627 26th Avenue			<URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403		(650)572-2607