The pros and cons of LabVIEW

[altenbach]

This is a generic post to possibly continue the discussion started in an <a href="http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&amp;view=by_date_ascending&amp;message.id=348061#M348061" target="_blank">unrelated thread</a>.
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Feel free to express your opinions on the pros and cons of LabVIEW as compared with more traditional, text base programming languages. :)Message Edited by altenbach on 08-09-2008 10:47 AM

[Mani's World]

The pros are too many to list but here a just a few to start with
1. Graphical interface is flexible and easy to use without any programming skills
2. provides a universal platform for numerous applications in diverse fields
3. can be used with 3rd party hardware - can be interfaced with C/C++, VB, fortran etc etc. the list is too long!!!
4. has excellent customer support- this forum is a testament to that.
Cheers!!!
Mani's World

[cschneider]

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[mikeporter]

Taking your points one-by-one: Memory management: If the code is written properly, this is essentially a non-issue as the processing will be done inplace. If you write code such that memory space reallocation needs to be done, LV will perform poorly - especially with datasets the size of which you are handling.Data Structures: This is only an issue if you decide to write part of your code in DLLs&nbsp; or need to call a specialized DLL that expects a struct as an input. I have never seen the first to be necessary, the second is rarely needed.Speed: Since version 2 LV has been a compiled language. The runtime engine needs to perform no further conversion at runtime.Expandable: This is only a point if you start with the assumption that the "normal" LV program (to use your terminology) is poorly written. I, of course, can't speak for you but mine are well-written. Regardless of how they are created, well written programs are Scalable, Readable and Maintainable. If someone chooses to write a program poorly, that is not the fault of the language. Or perhaps we should blame C++ or C# for the deficiencies of VIsta...

[Lavezza]

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[mishklyar]

Pros:
It is very easy to write a small program ( Acquire data, analyze it, save)
Cons:
It is very hard to write a big program&nbsp;( &gt; 100 VI ) and requires a lot of experience&nbsp;so that it&nbsp;would &nbsp;still manageble. One should know many tricks like :
&nbsp; 1) Call by reference VI
&nbsp; 2) Functional Global
&nbsp; 3) Strict typedefs
&nbsp; 4) Managing sizes of array by "reshape"
&nbsp; 5) etc...

[Pnt]

mishklyar, all those you wrote, are basic programming technics for LabVIEW.
Not advanced tricks.
You just need a different way of thinking, from a text based language

[Intaris]

Pros: Parallel code executionVisual programming styleFast execution speed (when you know how of course)Perfect for Quick&amp;Dirty solutionsGetting better all the time for larger projectsLots of toolkits availableFairly slick IDEBug reports are reacted onWindows, Linux and Mac supportLVOOPConsIt's called LabVIEWNon-extendible IDE (At the moment)Most toolkits only under WindowsNeed to buy a full licence for each platform (Win, Linux, Mac)Relatively expensiveMakes me always want a bigger monitor (for multiple diagrams, not sprawling code :smileytongue:) I'm most definitely a fan.&nbsp; Love LV on the whole.Shane.

[JoeLabView]

Intaris wrote:
ConsIt's called LabVIEWNeed to buy a full licence for each platform (Win, Linux, Mac)



Yes!!&nbsp; The name LabVIEW...&nbsp;&nbsp;
I edited my reply before posting only to see that I would have been repeating what others have already said:&nbsp; <a href="http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5313" target="_blank">http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5313</a>
<a href="http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&amp;view=by_date_ascending&amp;message.id=347980#M347980" target="_blank">http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&amp;view=by_date_ascending&amp;message.id=347980#M347980</a>
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It's evolved to more than being just a "Laboratory V irtual I nstrumentation E ngineering W orkbench".&nbsp; It is a full-fledged software language...&nbsp; Not limited to laboratory applications or to be a virtual instrument.
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Maybe it is time for a change of name.
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R

[Mani's World]

Joe LabView Wrote
It's evolved to more than being just a "Laboratory V irtual I nstrumentation E ngineering W orkbench".&nbsp; It is a full-fledged software language...&nbsp; Not limited to laboratory applications or to be a virtual instrument.
In my humble opinion, if you look at the individual terms in LabVIEW as Joe mentioned, it tends to encompass a lot of ground from virtual intrumentation to all fields of engineering. It is no doubt an advanced programming software/language but its basic strength lies in the simplicity of the Graphical coding capability.LV is not a bad name afterall. Java, C/C++ etc. etc. also don't convey the potentials of those languages.Cheers:)Mani's WorldMessage Edited by Mani's World on 08-10-2008 11:11 AM

[muks]

Well to me pros are - Graphical vis require&nbsp; minimum keyborad interaction
- errors are immediately projected and ned to be corrected Instead of showing the line number and you get mauled by some 30 odd errors after correcting the single eror and u r wondering if had actually corrected or fixed some thing or u have broken some poisonous pipe.
- really fun after a few months of working on it
- ease of configuring device drivers
- Time taken for coding is very less compared to other language like vc++..
- User interface screen can be neatly and beautifully made in a very short time.
ConsYeah they do have many- Memory allocation and memory management is still a mystery...........
- Requirement of deployment licence every time u utter the word vision.
- Pricing(Isnt it a bit on the costlier side?)
- Not all cameras can be used using LabVIEW.
- Only NI FPGAS can be programmed with LabVIEW and to imagine who grt it wudve been programming an equivalent verilog for my spartan kit.Hmmmmmmmm
- And...........

[muks]

And altenbach I would defenitely like to hear your thoughts........

[Ben]

As one who has already "drunk the Kool-aid" I standback from the pros and cons, with one exception the name. Although engineers and scientist may not think twice about anything involving the word "lab" but for the non-engineer and scientists, "lab" is a scary word.
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&nbsp;But to help those who are interested in optimizing performance, I have collected many links to threads that address the various issues and can be found in my Tag...
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&nbsp;<a href="http://forums.ni.com/ni/tagging/view_tag?tag.text=LabVIEW_Performance&amp;tag.message_scope=all" target="_blank">LabVIEW_Performance</a>.
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If you read through all of those links and their related links, you will be on your way to being a LabVIEW Speed Wizard. I invite all of you to do so. We need someone who can keep Christian honest and another Speed Wizard is always handy to have around. :smileywink:
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Ben