Command/alert (Or Equivalent) To Execute Within Protocol

[SteveMyres]

When experimenting with a protocol, it's helpful to be able to execute functions, inspect variables, etc., similar to the way you might do so in a standard DF sequence.  Protocol functions are accessible from the normal Command/Alert prompt using the Device.MyDevice.MyFunction() notation, but protocol variables, even if declared global, don't show in the prompt list, nor seem to be visible if typed explicitly.  I don't get a "Channel not found error" if I query ?Device.MyDevice.MyGlobalVariable, but I don't get a value either.

 

Also, what is the priority of protocol code relative to sequences and so on.   My protocol has neither a fixed terminating character nor a known character length so what I do is wait till I see characters in the buffer, then when I don't see any additional characters arrive after several more checks, I assume I've got the response and process it.  It was set up as a delay(0.001) and five consecutive checks with no characters, but I think the protocol is yielding and not checking anywhere near every 1ms, so I changed it to two dry checks on a 3ms interval.  This works OK, but brought to mind the question of what the protocol execution priority is relative to the various sequence priorities.

 

Thanks!