LabVIEW

LabVIEW is a tool ideal for developing lab bench instrumentation, particularly for aggregating sensor data and performing mathematical analysis.

GUI-based applications developed in LabVIEW are known as Virtual Instruments (VIs).

Graphical Programming Language

LabVIEW is a graphical programming language.

The IDE splits into two parallel views of your VI (Virtual Instrument):

• Front Panel

  The GUI that the user operates and monitors.

• Block Diagram

  The program logic — structured using interconnected nodes and wires.

  • Visually resembles a circuit schematic

  • Functionally behaves like a data flow diagram

  • Supports coarse-grained parallelism

    • A block executes only when all its input wires have valid data

    • Sequence structures and subVIs can enforce ordered execution

  • Supports iteration

    • For and While loop equivalents

  • Supports conditional logic

    • Case statements similar to switch or if/else

Work Notes / Observations

TODO: Add examples of things LabVIEW does well (e.g. quick GUI, test automation), and where it gets weird (e.g. global variables, debugging parallel paths).

Useful Links

• Wikipedia

• National Instruments

  • LabVIEW

• LabVIEW Wiki

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