Labview support for OS X Sierra

[RogerBum]

This seems like it would have been answered already, but simple searches don't pull it up. When will Mac OS X Sierra be supported?  It was released in Sept 2016, but it's not yet on the list of supported OS's.

[natasftw]

Given release dates, let's take a look at that.

LV 2016 was released Aug 2016.

Sierra was released Sept 2016.

There hasn't been a LV release since that date.

I'd guess the next version would have support.  But, that's a guess.  It'd match what has happened historically.  But, none of the versions that exist came out after Sierra.

[RogerBum]

While it is obvious that the current version of LV was released prior to the current version of the MacOS, that doesn't really answer what the time frame might be for support of what is now the current MacOS (Sierra).   We are now ~6 months past the release of Sierra but I can't find out when Nat. Instruments might support it.  This is not a problem I face with many other pieces of software on this OS.  Most vendors are well aware of a new OS release and are often testing and writing on the beta versions of OS so that they can support it soon after it is released.  For the most common software, this happens in days to weeks, for less common tools it rarely takes more than a couple of months.  Should I take this as an indication that I can't count on NI to support Mac?

[rolfk]

NI basically never makes any promises about software that has not yet been released. Nor about when it will be released, nor if at all and what features it will support or not.

Considering that in the past, there was always a service pack release of LabVIEW around March it may be a pretty sensible assumption that this will happen this year too. Except that they also changed NI Week from being in August when they traditionally announced and released a new LabVIEW version, to being for the first time in April this year. So they might actually delay the SP1 release to be announced during NI Week. It's pretty safe to assume that SP1 will officially support the latest MacOS X version too. But I don't work with NI, and I do not have any inside knowledge about this. Everything in this post is strictly based on speculation and a bit common sense reasoning.

If you want to know anything more specifically, you'll have to kidnap an NI marketing person and bribe them with something nice.

NI support people are not allowed to make any promises about upcoming product releases.

And while the Macintosh platform has certainly a lower priority for NI based on simple volumes, it's exactly the same for Windows. NI has generally two releases of their mainstream software platforms per year and supports new OS versions usually in the next product release after the OS release came out. That was the same with Windows 10 too, although under Windows it is usually possible to install even older LabVIEW releases onto Windows 10, despite that they are not supported.

Mac OSX and Linux are often much more tricky in that respect. They usually manage to break things that worked in previous versions fine, quite regularly. And such breakage is seldom considered a bug, but instead the specification is changed to match the new behavior and applications have to deal with it.

I'm running LabVIEW versions back to 6.0 on my Windows 10 system without any serious problems!

[natasftw]

While it is obvious that the current version of LV was released prior to the current version of the MacOS, that doesn't really answer what the time frame might be for support of what is now the current MacOS (Sierra).  

I gave you my best guess.  I also gave you the reasoning for that guess.  Historically, it's been the version released afterwards.  As the other poster mentioned, that's traditionally been March but I wouldn't be surprised if NI week shifted things.

We are now ~6 months past the release of Sierra but I can't find out when Nat. Instruments might support it.  This is not a problem I face with many other pieces of software on this OS.

You used a key word here: many.  This suggests you've had struggles with other software.  As a software developer, it's likely a problem you've faced pretty regularly using a Mac.  I've had the same struggles.  This is why I use Boot Camp to run software development on a Windows partition.

Most vendors are well aware of a new OS release and are often testing and writing on the beta versions of OS so that they can support it soon after it is released.  For the most common software, this happens in days to weeks, for less common tools it rarely takes more than a couple of months.  

I'm not sure I'd disagree with your timeline.  But, let's go with the couple of months timing.  There's a LOT to LV and it touches quite a few elements in the OS.  Think of something as small as get date/time in seconds.  That's likely to be calling into the OS.  When little changes in the OS happen, this will cause issues.  The couple months of testing you cite is going to affect Windows, Linux, VxWorks, Pharlaps, and OSX.  It's not as simple as "why haven't they tested for the single OS I run?"  I'd expect they'd prioritize the most used OS options.

Should I take this as an indication that I can't count on NI to support Mac?

To be entirely honest, this really depends on what you're wanting to do and where you're planning to focus your development.  Are you looking to develop embedded applications?  The FPGA tools all rely on Xilinx.  Their choices drive what you'll be able to do in this space.  Are you looking to get into DAQ?  OSX is supported by DAQmx Base rather than DAQmx so you'll have limited options.  Here's the NI page on OSX support: http://www.ni.com/labview/os-support/  You may notice there aren't any blocks where "full support" is listed.  At best, you'll find partially supported.  For basic programming, you'll be supported just fine.  It just won't be within weeks.  If you're looking at more advanced tasks, you're using the wrong tool for your task.

[RogerBum]

I've been using LabView on an off on a mac since 1992-1993.  I hadn't had much need for it for the  past 3 years and only recently obtained a new version.  I've used Labview for everything from instrument control (imaging systems, gas controllers etc - I'm a science faculty member at the University of Washington) to complex data analysis tasks.   Right now, I'm only trying to use it for some current data analysis problems.  I've never experienced the kind of instability I'm seeing on the mac now (even when I revert to an earlier operating system).  When Labview was originally written, the only platform supported was the mac.  The mere idea that I can't get from NI any idea of when LV might support the most recent version of the mac OS X after it has been released for >6 months, makes me think that I can no longer depend on LV for even moderate mac support.  And yes, I realize I can run it on Windows (boot camp, parallels or actual Windows box).  I just think it's crazy that I can't run it reliably on my current mac and that I have to go through so much gymnastics to arrive at a usable system on which to program in LV (especially given it's early history on Mac).

[mvallance]

Any news on updates so I can use LabView with MacOSX High Sierra? Thank you. 

[francine.p]

LabVIEW 2017 SP1 is now released and is supported by OS X 10.13 High Sierra!

[mvallance]

Just bought  a new Mac and ready to purchase and  install LabView 2017.

But where can I find LabView 2017 for Mac please?

See

http://search.ni.com/nisearch/app/main/p/ap/tech/lang/en/pg/1/sn/n8:28,ssnav:pdl/

No mac download.

[Kyle97330]

Is this  (full) not the download you need?  When I clicked your link it's the second result and it says it supports Mac OX 10.13

Or this one for the professional dev environment?