difference between labview 2009 2010 2011

[Jonas_Stein]

What are the major differences between these versions?

I searched a lot, but could not find a list yet.

[smercurio_fc]

The differences are explained in the Release Notes.

What exactly are you looking for?

One key difference:

• Separation of compiled code (LV 2010). Optional.
• Inclusion of scripting. 

A few other tidbits here and there.

Read the Release Notes.

[altenbach]

There are no mayor differences in functionality, and older programs will generally run on newer versions unchanged. Newer versions can be downconverted and will also run unchanged, unless they use some of the new features. Even then, they typically run, but might have some cosmetic flaws (e.g. if you have a 2011 VI with silver controls and convert down to 2010, where these did not exist. LabVIEW will substutute plain controls during the downconvert process).

Newer versions contain some new features, fix many old bugs (2010, 2010 SP1, 2011), and sometimes introduce a few new bugs (start here and go backwards). Still they are all LabVIEW and closely related. If you learned LabVIEW with version 7.0, you won't have any problems using LabVIEW 2011.

In addition to the release notes mentioned, I would recommend reading the LabVIEW 2011 upgrade notes, which details many of the new features and things to watch out for when coming from earlier version.

Comparing the three versions you mentioned, the biggest reason to go with LabVIEW 2011 is stability. I still crash 2010 once in a while, but 2011 is significantly more bulletproof. Some of the other new features of 2011 can be found here.

A nice selection of the new (now old!) features introduces with LabVIEW 2010 can be found in Darrens Nuggets. Look for "Cool LabVIEW 2010 Features Part I .. X" between 8-2-2010 and 10-18-2010.