How many ways does VB.NET use VISA?

[xiaochouyu]

I know there are two ways：
1, using visa32.dll
2, using NationalInstruments.VisaNS

Is there any other way? What are their shortcomings and advantages?

[SaileshK]

Hi xiao,

As far as I know, those are the only two ways to use VISA with VB.NET. VisaNS is the legacy .NET API for VISA. If you are developing a new application, then I would strongly recommend NI-VISA.NET instead of VisaNS. I've linked some documentation below that goes more into detail about this:

National Instruments VISA .NET Library

http://www.ni.com/product-documentation/52841/en/#toc9

[xiaochouyu]

thanks

So there are three ways .NET uses VISA:

1,Call visa32.dll directly

2,VisaNS

3,ivi.visa

You think is the best is ivi.visa.Can I understand like this?

[SaileshK]

Hi xiao,

If you have an existent IVI driver that uses VISA, then I'd recommend using that since it may be easier for you to follow. However directly calling the VISA dll directly will give you a bit more low level control in your application. At the end of the day it comes down to preference.

[harry.zhou]

Can you send me an example about calling visa 32. DLL? thank you!

z-jzhao@163.com