12. A method for generating a test pattern, the method comprising: accepting input from a text definition file that contains a series of attributes of a particular test pattern to be generated, the series of attributes of the particular test pattern including one or more segment description statements; retrieving the series of attributes from the text definition file and populating a first memory with segment description codes describing segments of the particular test pattern based on the retrieved segment description statements; and producing an output of a series of portions of the particular test pattern by, for each of the portions, inserting data into the output that is derived from one or more segment description codes.
18. The method for generating test patterns according to claim 12 , further comprising: receiving an input for selecting the particular test pattern to produce out of a plurality of possible test patterns to produce.