Can I create own graphical programming IDE inspired by LabVIEW?

[WireMess]

Ok, 😄 I just wanted to write that I understand how much work is going under hood 😄 And I think this is problem. I also expect some black magic happening to translate diagram into code, but in reality it's simple at it is. Diagram is going for C or something other textual and after is compiled. How much code goes into compiler depends what you need, first I thought there should be some big framework behind but not, it's simple as it is, I assured myself about this when I finished first reasonable good running LabVIEW block diagram to Arduino code (what is C++)

https://github.com/LubomirJagos/LabVIEW-Universal-Transcriptor/blob/master/Documentation/Quickstart%...

let's say it's possible to rewrite diagram into code, don't know if I made it right, but what I was trying it was running, so now I would take it for next step and I would like to know if it's ok to make application like that pictures above translating code into code?

...still waiting somebody from NI will write me their opinion 😄

[altenbach]

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@WireMess wrote:

let's say it's possible to rewrite diagram into code, ...

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The LabVIEW diagram IS the code! It gets translated directly into lowlevel code by DFIR, which is then converted into platform specific machine code using LLVM. There is no step that involves any highlevel text based language.

[WireMess]

Hey, I was really looking on internet for idea what I had and found nothing, like a huge black hole and I was like common' it's not so hard, how it's possible, but that zaluum is exactly what I'm referring, they used Eclipse plugin 😄 I know I found at that time in 2010 that was the key stone first multiplatform programmable open (open source maybe) plugin 😄 but since then things developed and now it's much more easier to do it than it was before. That's really interesting that last commit are really 8 years old, at time it must be huge to do something similar... I understand, but now since LabVIEW is opening next year and I'm really looking forward, I still working with LabVIEW everyday, so now I'm wondering if I can do myself my project and show it?

[rolfk]

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@WireMess wrote:

...still waiting somebody from NI will write me their opinion 😄

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They won't and can't. Nobody at NI is going to give you a definitive answer in either way as that would go beyond their legal capability. Even if they feel positive towards your initiative, they can't go to say more than to wish you good luck as they might otherwise speak against company interests. Also most people at NI are not lawyers either just  like you and me and their opinion in this matter is not legally important in any way but they might still set precedence that could be used in court (not likely in connection with you but maybe some competitor of NI who tries to use it for his own agenda). For these reasons any active NI employee will likely keep his lips sealed shut in this thread.

If NI had wanted more involvement from other sides into their graphical programming paradigma, they would have sought to get the entire thing standardized under some international committee like ISO, ANSI, IEEE or similar to get it at least the appearence of independence. They haven't so far and are not very likely to do that anytime soon. So it seems unlikely that they are welcoming competing environments esily, eventhough they might not actively seek to destroy non-commercial attempts.So far all of them seem to have bled dead on their own without any involvement from NI.

All you can do is look into what you want to do, how much time you are prepared to invest into and read up on the still active patents NI has about graphical programming and trying to avoid them to the best of your knowledge if you want to proceed. I wish you good luck!

[WireMess]

"So far all of them seem to have bled dead on their own without any involvement from NI."

This part I liked most! If it would be in way like you are writing it would be fine. It's just I think it is good to write programs as diagrams and I know this has stone foundations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-flow_graph) 🙂

So how I posted before my transcriptor I know, that I can translate diagram for running code (everybody can because it's VI package you can easily install), I would like to make graphical IDE which look is different from LabVIEW and all it shares with it is just graphical approach for programming.

[altenbach]

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@WireMess wrote:

...graphical representation of code would be similar as LabVIEW, because there is probably no other way how to represent loops, case, ... it would be mostly like just block diagram editor what we all are using.

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It is dangerous to limit yourself with words like that. There is no reason that loops and cases cannot be represented in radically different ways that nobody thought of yet. try to be creative. 😉

(Of course the LabVIEW implementation is pure genius. It's fun to read the first LabVIEW patent, it's all there!. Visionary! 😄 For some reference, look at the LabVIEW 1.2 manual from 1989!)

[Ben]

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@altenbach wrote:

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@WireMess wrote:

...graphical representation of code would be similar as LabVIEW, because there is probably no other way how to represent loops, case, ... it would be mostly like just block diagram editor what we all are using.

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It is dangerous to limit yourself with words like that. There is no reason that loops and cases cannot be represented in radically different ways that nobody thought of yet. try to be creative. 😉

(Of course the LabVIEW implementation is pure genius. It's fun to read the first LabVIEW patent, it's all there!. Visionary! 😄 For some reference, look at the LabVIEW 1.2 manual from 1989!)

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Agreed!

Even if we do not limit our creative side with statements like that, because of the way our minds are wired, once we find a quick answer, it can be very hard to find another answer.

As in the riddle found (here)

"

A man and his son are in a terrible accident and are rushed to the hospital in critical care. The doctor looks at the boy and exclaims "I can't operate on this boy, he's my son!" How could this be?

"

Spoiler

The doctor was the boy's mother

I remember reading a short piece in Haliday, Resnick and Walker "Fundamentals of Physics" about Einstein suggesting that since he was working in "divine isolation" he was no encumbered by the status quo.

That is not to suggest that we should all go off into a hole and code without interacting with others. (me genoito  "may it not be so")

But it is a good thing to look beyond the obvious and question the status quo.

Ben

[varunaraokm]

I think you must continue work in it. There will be lot of people looking for it.

[BohemianGuy]

Hi,

thanks for post, yes I continue in this, at least I want to finished it into stage of prototype, still struggling to implement multilayer structure, I'm able to do it, but still there are problems with displaying it (it's HTML+javascript so always something is wrong).

This graphical language isn't gonna be replacement for LabVIEW, I think more about it like my personal project, because I know that graph representation of code could be easily rewritten into text code, most SW what I found on internet is able to build graphs, but they are missing multilayer structures and loops, which are essential for imperative programming.

I don't know if this would be useful for somebody else, but from my point of view there are some areas where it could be useful. Last months I was focused on my work (normally I work as LabVIEW test engineer for some RF stuff in avionics) and also I was playing with some open source RF simulators and PCB prototyping. It's not that I abandoned this project, mostly I was focused on the target areas what should be output of this project.
I imagine it as easy graphical interface to generate scripts/models or whatever to create user interface between text based things and user. I will take some time and try to make it.

I hope that LabVIEW Community Edition is on the way as it was scheduled despite current situation in world, I have another project for LabVIEW and Arduino (or whatever embedded device you want) which preceeded this effort (I haven't started without proof of concept).
Until I make this you can play with it it's transcriptor for LabVIEW to C++ code, I placed it here, also I made examples:
https://github.com/LubomirJagos/LabVIEW-Universal-Transcriptor
https://github.com/LubomirJagos/LabVIEW-for-Arduino-Libraries-Packages
quickstart: https://github.com/LubomirJagos/LabVIEW-Universal-Transcriptor/blob/master/Documentation/Quickstart%...


Take a look and don't hesitate to write here your opinion 🙂