On Thu, 29 Apr 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 29, 1999 at 02:51:15PM -0400, David J. Christini wrote:
> > Other than the obvious price hurdle (hardware=$2500-$3500;
> > software=$3500-$5000), and the stomach-turning need to use Windows, can
> > anyone give me their thoughts on what the other disadvantages are of the
> > new LabVIEW RT system? (they've put out a real-time version of LabVIEW
> > that utilizes special boards that have an on-board 486 processor to run
> > the real-time tasks: http://www.natinst.com/labviewrt/).
>
> I wish someone would write RTLinux modules for Labview Linux. I don't
> think it can be so hard.
>
I think we can do better than LabView; I *firmly* believe there is no
advantage to "G" or graphical programming in general. It is an illusion to
the uninitiated that it is any easier than text-based coding. It doesn't
make programmers out of non-programmers. (My experience is with LabView
2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 but nothing has substantially changed in the latest
version.)
I think that a few colorful widgets and a code-generating UI builder are
all that is necessary to substantially compete with LabView (well, perhaps
a friendly scripting language (python?) may help too). On top of that a
few filters, or a filter-making kit, and some other routines (PID,
display transforms) are also needed. These things are already available
in the free software world, it's just a matter of putting them in a kit.
Quick disadvantages of LabView RT:
(1) it's from NI
(1a) it's only from NI
(2) it relies on "G"
(2a) "G" is from NI
(2b) "G" is only from NI
I can't say much more about it right now, because I can't download their
"additional" documentation. As with much from NI, the hardware may be
fine, but the software is like coder's crack (it feels good, costs a lot,
and keeps the user hooked).
-Don
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For more information on Real-Time Linux see:
http://www.rtlinux.org/~rtlinux/
