controller <protocol> <protocol parameters...>
  controller std [sendterminator=...] [timeout=...] [replyterminator=...] [lineseparator=...]
  controller bin <crc-algorithm> <timeout>

Defaults are:

  sendterminator=\n
  timeout=5
  replyterminator=   (means CR/LF or any combination)
  lineseparator=     (means no multiline responses are expected)

The return value is 1 when the controller was created, 0 when it existed already (the return value may be needed if several object share the same controller, and the initialization of the controller properties have to be done only once).

Other protocols than std and bin might be programmed in the core SICS code, in fact there are already a couple of them made by Mark Koennecke. For some needs, it might be easier to enhance the std or bin protocol.