LabVIEW

LabVIEW is a software of development of applications of the american company National Instruments based on a graphic computer programming language called language G .

A software dedicated to the instrumental programming

The traditional scopes of application of LabVIEW are the order and measurement starting from a PC (data acquisition, control of instruments of measurement, experimental devices, benches of test). This vocation is devoted by libraries of specialized functions ( GPIB , charts of acquisition, data processing…), but also by the characteristics of the language G (parallelism inherent in the execution by data flow) and of the environment of development (pilots of standard peripherals, assistants for the installation of the material).

The concept of virtual instrument which gave its name to LabVIEW ( Lab oratory V irtual I nstrumentation E ngineering W orkbench), appears by the permanence of an graphical interface for each module (function) of a program. Controls and the indicators of this panel before constitute the interface by which the program interacts with the user (reading of orders and parameters, posting of the results). The functions of control of charts or instruments constitute the interface by which the program interacts with the assembly.

A LabVIEW program thus makes it possible to automate an assembly associating several programmable apparatuses, and joins together the access to the functionalities of this assembly in a single user interface, true front face of a virtual instrument .

The language G

For the developer, a program in language G is presented in the form of a diagram, the diagram, joining together various icons connected by wire of color. Each wire symbolizes the passage of a data since a source which it leaves (like result), towards a target where it enters (like parameter).

The diagrams of the language G thus have a significance quite different from that of the electronic diagrams which they evoke sometimes. In a LabVIEW diagram, the data forwards in the wire only at the time when it is generated by its icon source. The target icon will begin its execution only when all its data input are available. This model of scheduling by floods of data determines the order of execution of the treatments of the program. An important consequence of this rule is that the treatments which do not exchange data are free to be carried out in parallel. This property of the language G facilitates the development of applications multiprocessus, particularly interesting within the framework of the control of reactive systems (embarked or not).

The design of the programs in language G preserves a procedural approach primarily . Married with the execution by floods of data, this approach gets good performances in the field of the instrumentation. It is as most intuitive for engineers or researchers often more familiar of the experimental protocols as of the data-processing concepts.

The support of a design directed object under LabVIEW developed in a rather confidential way with first of all the kit " GOOP" proposed by a Swedish company since 1999, then with a support of the concepts of class and heritage to the center even of the environment of development 8.20, in 2006.

Evolution of LabVIEW

Created by Jeff Kodosky and presented for the first time on Macintosh in 1986, LabVIEW extended its use to PC and various operating systems (Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS…). It also developed in direction of the embarked systems and real-time, by opening for example with the programming integrated circuits (FPGA). The last version of LabVIEW is version 8.5.

See too

LabWindows/CVI
.vi

Wikibooks

Initiation in LabView

External bonds

ni.com/labview - official Page (National Instruments)
LabVIEW Zone - the official Community (National Instruments)
Test Drive NOR LabVIEW - Test in line of the software
FAQ LabVIEW - Collection of questions and answers
WASHED - LabVIEW Advanced Virtual Architects (the English Community).
OpenG - the Community Open Source LabVIEW (discussions and remote loadings)
Information-LabVIEW - the oldest mailing list (in English)
LabViewForum.de - LabVIEW Forum in Germany
wiki.LabViewForum.de - Wiki LabVIEW in Germany
Italian LabVIEW to use Group - Page of the users of LabVIEW in Italy
Polskie Centrum LabVIEW - Page of the users of LabVIEW in Poland
Singapore LabVIEW To use Group - Page of the users of LabVIEW to Singapore

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