LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

As discussed here, distributing the code of

#include <ansi_c.h>
int main ( int argc, char *argv [] )

{
    printf ( "%s", "Hello world" );
} 

generated in CVI2013 results in a distribution kit of 74 MB minimum...  Using the NI default settings results in 219 MB...

Yes, I do have TB drives, but I dislike bloated software.

Using CVI 2010 you can create different Custom Configurations

But I think that if a developer creates a new Custom Configuration (debug or release, x86 or x64), he wants to distribute it to a target machine. I don't create a Custom Configuration to have it run on my developer machine!

I've already asked to NI Support, and this can't be done in an automatic way.

So I suggest a new feature in the "Edit Installer" window to specify which Configuration (Default or Custom) to include into the installer (see attachments)

From the CVI Help:

Some Interface to Win32 Application Programmatic Interface (API) functions have the same name as some LabWindows/CVI functions, causing a naming conflict. You must include the Interface to Win32 API include files before the LabWindows/CVI include files. LabWindows/CVI automatically resolves the conflict by using the LabWindows/CVI implementation of the function. To use the Win32 API implementation of the function instead, define the SDK_CONFLICT_PRIORITY macro in the Compiler Defines section of the Build Options dialog box.

If you enable the SDK_CONFLICT_PRIORITY macro, you cannot use the following LabWindows/CVI functions and should use the Win32 API implementation instead.

Formatting and I/O Library

• CloseFile

• OpenFile

• ReadFile

• SetCommitMode

• WriteFile

Utility Library

• Beep

• CopyFile

• DeleteFile

• GetFileSize

• GetFileTime

• GetSystemTime

• SetFileTime

• SetSystemTime

• inp

• inpd

• inpw

• outp

• outpd

• outpw

Based on my experience these name conflicts have no advantages, and create a lot of problems: usually I use the CVI implementation, but it happens that after some time I need the Win32 API implementation of one of these functions (GetSystemTime(), for example).

In this situation I must heavily modify my code, changing the calls to all the above functions.

I don't like these naming conflicts at all.

I suggest that a "_CVI" prefix (or something like that) is added to the CVI implementation: an old project will recompile perfectly simply adding this prefix to the calls, without modifications to variables, structures, ...

Right now, it is possible to add a readme file to the distribution (Build / Distribution / Edit...). Unfortunately, the file type of a readme file (and the license agreement file) is limited to *.rtf. 

It might be useful to distribute a more 'complex' readme file, e.g. including figures. Hence I would prefer to distribute readme.pdf instead of readme.rtf

It would be great if NI could provide standard translations of the NI runtime message file msgrte.txt in commonly-used languages.

Whilst we can get translations done ourselves, it is normally done by translators who have little knowledge of the runtime context so the quality is rather variable; also, I get the feeling that we are duplicating effort that may have been already spent elsewhere.

If it helps, I for one would be willing to pay for a decent translation.