Going from the sublime (Andy's work) to the ridiculous, here's my set-up for measuring the cable travel on my Ultegra front triple shifter to see if I could substitute an XTR shifter.
Answer: No.
Paint stir stick, ruler and tape. First prize for "Most Primitive" measuring set-up.
As it turned out, I went to a thumb shifter for the front derailer, and it works well. The XTR shifter, thankfully, was a drop-in replacement for the 9-speed STI.
Cheap but functional thumb shifter on the left, XTR trigger shifter on the right.