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Revision as of 03:51, 27 March 2004 by 207.69.139.9 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)LabVIEW is a graphical programming language from National Instruments. Originally released for the Apple Macintosh in 1986, LabVIEW is used for data acquisition, instrument control, and industrial automation on a variety of platforms including Microsoft Windows, various flavors of UNIX, Linux, and MacOS.
LabVIEW programs are called virtual instruments or simply VIs. Each virtual instrument has two components, a block diagram and a front panel. Controls and indicators on the front panel allow an operator to input data into or extract data from an already running virtual instrument. In terms of performance, LabVIEW includes an actual compiler, so the graphical code is compiled, rather than interpreted.
The most capable alternatives to LabVIEW would be text-based programming languages such as C or Visual Basic; however, these approaches require specific skills to use that LabVIEW avoids - the graphical approach allows non-programmer users to construct sophisticated systems by simply dragging and dropping virtual representations of the lab equipment that they are already used to, allowing them to remain focused on their application instead of the details of arcane programming languages.
One of the main benefits of LabVIEW is that people with little or no previous programming experience are able to write programs and deploy test solutions in a minimal amount of time.
External links
Acquire, analyze, and present - Introduction to LabVIEW from National Instruments (LabVIEW vendor)