LabVIEW : Why use anything else to write code?

[BrianInTheForest]

I have been programming in LabVIEW for about 3 years now pretty heavily for both work and fun.

It seems to me that if one is going to write most any type of program that LabVIEW is the logical choice. 

I was playing around with vb6 the other day and what a hassle just to add vertical and horizontal scroll bars. 

To do just simple things in other languages is a pain in the you know what.

The only reason I see not to use LabVIEW for most applications is the lack of knowledge of LabVIEW.

Can anyone convince me that I am wrong in my thinking?

[Ben]

Well now that this discussion is over ...

I tried starting a similar conversation on Slash Dot and could find anyone willing to debate.

Welcome to the club!

Have you seen the Breakpoint yet?

See here

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board?board.id=BreakPoint

Ben

[Will.D]

I came from a C programming background, and the only thing I think C had over LabVIEW is low-level stuff.  This could be due to lack of LabVIEW knowledge on my part, but C was nice for memory access/control, and low-level hardware calls.

Otherwise, you're quite right.  I find it FAR less work than most other development environments.  Especially for UI stuff like you mentioned.

[TiTou]

It can also be a matter of performance !

A company I was working for a couple of years ago was developping code in LabVIEW and for faster data logging they had a dll wrote in C.

In a different field, for some very specific experiments a friend of mine who works for the CERN in Geneva uses C++ / fortran depending on his need for matters of performance.

a part from that I agree that LabVIEW rocks !

[Will.D]

TiTou...  you have a friend who works for CERN?

Any way to get an 'in'? 

[TiTou]

I do have one, he works as a  soft engineer but I don't think he is a in position in which he can  get you in 😉

[Tariah]

There's nothing that compares. I even wrote a small LV utility to help me do my taxes.  I have used C only once in the last few years and that was to pass data to another program via a shared DLL.


Of course, it's a double-sided sword.  I'm still annoyed that NI won't include the app builder in the Full Development package. Tsk-tsk...bad form, NI.

And the LV 8 editor has the distinction of being the slowest program on this planet to load.  Makes my Pentium 4 feel like a 286 PC!  I guess LV 8 needs a Pentium 8!

But NI does listen and that's unique for companies these days. Hope they keep it up.

[tbob]

Each programmin language has its ups and downs, with Labview having the most ups by far.  Besides, it is a lot more fun to program in Labview than other languages.  So far I have used Fortran, C, VB, Pascal, assembly, ladder logic, and LabWindows, and I wouldn't trade Labview for anything.  However, certain low level functions are better off done in C.  Fortran was especially good at number crunching.  VB was good for applications dealing with MS Office products, but now Labview is too.  Happy Labview programming.

Ooops, forgot to mention HPVEE, which is a very crude attempt to immitate Labveiw.

Message Edited by tbob on 06-22-2006 12:53 PM