BreakPoint
Happy retirement, JeffK! (appreciation thread)
For those of us in Austin, we'll be sure to wave as we float by as you play with your 'telescope'
(his house is the one seen through the bridge arch) (and his 'telescope' is an amazing observatory)
The creation of LabVIEW, and its continued innovation over the years has made a career for myself and many I know. It is hard to imagine what I would be doing or where I would be if LabVIEW hadn't existed. Thanks Jeff. He has also always been an enthusiastic person to talk to, on the subject of technology. And I've enjoyed the chances to talk to a real LabVIEW celebrity.
Now that he is retired, he should present at NI Week/Connect. It would probably set session attendance records.
LabVIEW has made graphical programming viable (there were many other attempts that mostly failed) and the implementation is pure genius! If you look at the original patent filings, you can see that the graphical syntax was basically all there from the very beginning. Jeff is a true visionary!
Having loops where you can see with one glance what's "inside" or "outside" was a revelation when I first stared with LabVIEW 4.0. Being able to easily create fully parallel code (acquire data, analyze some other data, create reports, etc. all at the same time and in the same single UI!) on a 100MHz Pentium 1 was amazing back in ~1995.
I truly appreciate the efforts to make LabVIEW a perfect tool for hardware free pure scientific computing (as I mostly use it!). We have all the tools to get started (linear algebra, fitting, fancy transforms, etc. etc.). This is not universally known and unfortunately not how LabVIEW is presented in the sales literature. My purpose in life is to prove that LabVIEW is the correct tool for these things, even though NI can't sell any hardware for that. Still, Everything being equal, users like me can help improve typical LabVIEW programs and advance the curve. There is never any need to export data and analyze in some other weird language (MATLAB, Fortran, C++, etc.), everything can be done right in the acquisition program, even while data is still being acquired.
I am never getting tired programming in LabVIEW because it is such a rewarding experience and fun too! Everything I try to do succeeds quickly, algorithms work, and I automatically get a UI for free! Thank you so much for providing me with a fulfilling programming life!
In summary, congratulations Jeff to your retirement (but I suspect that it will filled with both new endeavors and continuation of existing interests). I hope we can meet again in the future.
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NI_Community_Su
Congratulations Mr. Kodosky,
You can be proud of 46 years of accomplishments and we thank you for it. It must have been quite the challenge to create a new "graphical" language (beyond a novel idea) that so many have loved using over the years. Thank you for all your dedication and perseverance to guide LabVIEW to what it is today. You have helped many people become successful in their career - that alone is worth celebrating!
We are probably the most critical customers and users of LabVIEW and thank you for listening to those of us who provided comments and feedback not necessarily in the kindest of manners. We are "grumpy old men" after all. 😏 I truly enjoy programming with LabVIEW and it is my first choice of languages when developing personal projects.
I have a nice bottle of wine from Truchard vineyard (2014 Cabernet Sauvignon) that I will open in your honor. It would be great to share it with you and fellow LabVIEW Enthusiasts.
It is important to spend time with family & friends. If your travels take you to Canada's capital city, please let me know and feel free to reach out anytime, even to say hello. I am sure that your hobbies will keep you busy and suspect they might be "technical" in nature.
You are leaving a wonderful legacy with NI that will be around for many years.
Best Wishes for a Happy Retirement!
RayR
@altenbach wrote:
LabVIEW has made graphical programming viable (there were many other attempts that mostly failed) and the implementation is pure genius! If you look at the original patent filings, you can see that the graphical syntax was basically all there from the very beginning. Jeff is a true visionary!
Having loops where you can see with one glance what's "inside" or "outside" was a revelation when I first stared with LabVIEW 4.0. Being able to easily create fully parallel code (acquire data, analyze some other data, create reports, etc. all at the same time and in the same single UI!) on a 100MHz Pentium 1 was amazing back in ~1995.
I truly appreciate the efforts to make LabVIEW a perfect tool for hardware free pure scientific computing (as I mostly use it!). We have all the tools to get started (linear algebra, fitting, fancy transforms, etc. etc.). This is not universally known and unfortunately not how LabVIEW is presented in the sales literature. My purpose in life is to prove that LabVIEW is the correct tool for these things, even though NI can't sell any hardware for that. Still, Everything being equal, users like me can help improve typical LabVIEW programs and advance the curve. There is never any need to export data and analyze in some other weird language (MATLAB, Fortran, C++, etc.), everything can be done right in the acquisition program, even while data is still being acquired.
I am never getting tired programming in LabVIEW because it is such a rewarding experience and fun too! Everything I try to do succeeds quickly, algorithms work, and I automatically get a UI for free! Thank you so much for providing me with a fulfilling programming life!
In summary, congratulations Jeff to your retirement (but I suspect that it will filled with both new endeavors and continuation of existing interests). I hope we can meet again in the future.
I too started using LabVIEW using LabVIEW with version 4.0 as well. the fond days of loading a stack of floppies to install LabVIEW. I come from the world of computer science and like you, rarely use any hardware with my applications. I use LabVIEW purely as a general purpose programming language. I remember learning about data flow very early in my career prior to my even knowing LabVIEW existed. It was the current buzz in CS and everyone was excited about trying it. The major problem was that no text based language could really support implementing a data flow application. A few years later I was exposed to LabVIEW and the rest is history. The data flow concept is such a pure method to define a system yet to this day text based languages simply can't do it. At least not without a lot of effort from the developers.
I still dream of the day when LabVIEW, or at least a graphical language, is the dominant programming language.
Thank you Jeff for such a fantastic contribution to the computing world.
Hi Jeff,
We never met but I would like to thank you for the great product and joy you gave me working with LabVIEW.
When I quit the job I worked for a long time and a lot with LabVIEW they had the slogan 'Technolgy with vision'.
They even made me a present... 'but LabVIEW with Passion!' and 15 years later I still feel the same way!
Thank you and happy retirement!
