Same Function Name -GetSystemTime in CVI & SDK

[gripper]

I want to use GetSystemTime SDK function in my application. But same function exists in CVI, and compiler says, "Type error in argument 1 to `CVI_GetSystemTime'; found 'pointer to SYSTEMTIME' expected 'pointer to int'."
How can I use this function in SDK?

#include

void myTime(void)
{
SYSTEMTIME dh;

GetSystemTime(&dh);
}

[aperez]

Hi gripper,

I was able to run the following program with CVI 6.0 without any errors:

#include
#include


void myTime(void)
{
SYSTEMTIME dh;


GetSystemTime(&dh);
}



int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
if (InitCVIRTE (0, argv, 0) == 0)
return -1; /* out of memory */
myTime();
return 0;
}

What version of CVI do you have? Does the code above work for you?

Regards,
Azucena

[gripper]

Thanks, aperez.
I have CVI version 6.
And I've figured out that if I do not include "utility.h" there is no problem to compile,
but I need the Delay function(defined in utility.h), so I must replace Delay CVI API to sleep SDK API.

But how can I solve this problem if I MUST use function defined in utility.h ?

TIA,
gripper

[aperez]

You're right. CVI also defines a GetSystemTime function. Here is the prototype of CVI's:
int GetSystemTime (int *Hours, int *Minutes, int *Seconds);
If you need to use Delay(), can't you use the GetSystemTime function provided by CVI?
I don't think you can include both header files and use either GetSystemTime.

[gripper]

Hi!
I solved this problem using GetLocalTime() instead of GetSystemTime. GetSystemTime returns UTC...
Afterall, I still can not use GetSystemTime in SDK (although it is useless for me).
I can not use GetSystemTime defined in CVI because I need to operate with respect to current time of millisecond order.
Anyway, Thanks aperez for your kind consideration.

[aperez]

Excellent. I'm glad you could use another CVI function to get the time. Good luck with your application.

Azucena

[menchar]

I went ahead and modified the NI utility.h header file to eliminate the NI GetSystemTime() prototype to solve this problem. That way I had access to the "real" (Win32) GetSystemTime() and could still access the remaining utility.h functions.

Why in the world did NI overload this well-known Win32 function with their own? It's not a cross-platform compatability issue - it only works on Windows!

Everyone keeps encountering this same stupid problem. That people keep wanting to use the Win32 function is firsthand evidence that the NI replacement isn't a viable equivalent.

[aperez]

Actually, it is not necessary to modify the utility.h file. You can just undef the GetSystemTime() function as follows:

#undef GetSystemTime

You should have the undef statement somewhere below the "#include " statement. This will allow you to use the Win32 GetSystemTime without our compiler thinking that you mean the CVI GetSystemTime.

On another note, CVI's libraries have been around for a long time (since 1988). This is not to say that our GetSystemTime has been around that long, but it probably has been around a very long time. It is not the first, nor will it be the last of our library functions that came into conflict with the Win32 SDK; specially because CVI predates the SDK.

Regards,

Azucena

[menchar]

Be that as it may, users repeatedly run up against this issue, and waste a lot of time trying to resolve it.

Perhaps it would behoove NI to add a switch or option to defer to equivalent SDK calls when there's a conflict. Or at least document the problem more clearly. After all, you're promoting CVI's ability to use the Win32 SDK.