Several ambitious scientific projects are currently pushing the limits of astrophysical spectroscopy, in terms of wavelength accuracy and long-term stability. These objectives put strong constraints also on the treatment of observational data, requiring dedicated software to be developed as an integral part of the instrument. In this context, a key role will be played by ESPRESSO, an ultra-stable, high-resolution spectrograph for the VLT. ESPRESSO will be the first ESO instrument to be delivered with a dedicated tool for data analysis, in addition to data reduction. New solutions to treat ESPRESSO data have been developed in view of their application to the the next-generation spectrographs.