perl script to show GameEngine output

Hey guys (and gals perhaps?),
I am still new to all this and trying to figure out exactly how SimTools works. One of the big unknowns for me initially was what exactly was output by the GameEngine and fed to the microcontroller, so I wrote a super simple little perl script to capture the output and print it to the screen so I can actually see it. Hopefully this is helpful to others down the road if they have the same kinds of questions.

This perl script acts as a simple UDP socket server. It simply opens a socket and prints out the messages it receives. To make the output a bit more readable, I am only printing the output when it changes.

In order to run this utility, you need perl on your computer. For Windows, you want ActivePerl. Note: I had to change the file name from simTest.pl to simTest.txt in order to upload it. Just change the extension back to .pl and then perl will recognize it. To run it, open a cmd prompt, browse to the directory where you have the script and run it by typing 'perl simTest.pl'. Now open GameEngine and setup the Interface Settings to match the attached screenshot. Now when you turn on Output Testing, you should be able to move the sliders around and see how the output changes. If all went well, you should see something like this:

C:\JB\Sim\GameEngine Test Tool>perl simTest.pl
Output from SimTools: R127L127-startup
Output from SimTools: R127L127
Output from SimTools: R128L127
Output from SimTools: R129L127
Output from SimTools: R130L127
Output from SimTools: R131L127
Output from SimTools: R131L126
Output from SimTools: R131L124
Output from SimTools: R131L122
Output from SimTools: R131L121
Output from SimTools: R131L117
Output from SimTools: R131L116
Output from SimTools: R131L115

Cheers!
-JBoogie

Well done.

Thanks guys, glad to be able to contribute something which might be useful!

@RaceRay, I am happy to move this to wherever you think it should be. As the OP can I move this entire topic or should I just create a new one?