Events: the core of the system

Events are the key to the Whisker system. What a typical client (behavioural task) program does is to say, in effect, 'Say FISH to me when the rat depresses a lever; say TIME_UP to me when 30 minutes elapse from now.' It then sits quietly and waits for the server to send it messages. When the appropriate lever is pressed (or the time elapses), the server sends it a message containing the desired text; the client may then take action (such as activating the pellet dispenser, or ending the session). The client may choose freely the text used for these events.

Event messages are marked in a special way (they're preceded by 'Event:') to distinguish them from other types of message. The detailed list of messages given on subsequent pages shows how this works.