A method and apparatus for saving the operational settings of an instrument. The method comprises the steps of: initiating the saving operation, initializing, by each software object, of any software object below it, initializing the internal variables belonging to the software objects, and saving the results to a file. The file is modular, is human readable text and is a computer program. The internal variable is designated in the file by a hierarchical path and is designated in the file by a hierarchical address. The computer program in an industry standard programming language such as Visual Basic Script.