Review: LabView 6i on the Mac

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by Scott Myers

(IDG) -- National Instruments has shipped version 6 of LabView, its award-winning virtual instrument (VI) authoring package. The new version includes the designator 6i, and the "i" indicates its new strength as a creator of Internet-ready applications.

LabView is popular in science labs and manufacturing environments throughout the world. It's a multi-platform visual programming environment--with its roots firmly in the Mac--that lets users create virtual instruments such as Geiger counters, pH meters, machine and robotic controllers, and all manner of engineering and health science test equipment. The software interfaces to a wide variety of data-acquisition hardware. It has similar capabilities on Mac, Windows, Unix and even Linux, and an application written on a Mac can usually be recompiled for any platform with little change.

Unlike misnomers such as Visual Basic, LabView is a true visual programming environment. A recent IEEE conference about object-oriented visual programs noted that there are few such tools on the market today; they cited Macromedia Director and Lego as other examples.

What you see

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A typical LabView "program" consists of a front panel and a diagram of wired building blocks. Programming structures such as loops are represented by active graphic elements. They are self-documenting, understandable diagrams; processes generally flow through the diagram from left to right.

Einstein once said, "Simplify, simplify, but don't oversimplify." National Instruments has done a remarkable job of making the difficult easier. Each succeeding version of LabView has added strength while simplifying both the programming modules and documentation. The seven previous manuals have been honed into three tightly written ones.

LabView 6i's interface is more attractive, more 3-D. Each dial and gauge has been enhanced with attractive graphics. Features such as transparency and antialiasing have been added. Graphs can automatically include time stamps. Panels can be resized to fit another monitor and all objects including fonts are proportionately resized

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Along with these aesthetic changes, functionality has taken a big jump. Version 6i's all-purpose formula node, used for entering text-based equations, can accept arrays as well as single numbers. It can include scripts as well as formulas, putting much of the power of MatLab or National's own HiQ right into LabView.

The new app is also faster and more efficient. Array and string operations are up to 50 percent faster. Loading VIs is 40 percent faster. Some Fast Fourier transforms (FFT) are now 900 percent to 3000 percent faster.

C++ programmers must know how to manage difficult data types, such as floating point, signed or unsigned integers. Fortunately, many built-in functions in LabView are polymorphic--incorporating multiple functions--and will automatically handle different data types. For instance, multiply a 16 bit number by an 8 bit number and the polymorphic Add function will handle the conversions. Try THAT in C++. LabView 6i also adds the ability to let users create new polymorphic VIs on their own, called instance VIs.

In the recent past, commercial and recreational pilots would use hundreds of individual dials and gauges to fly. In modern planes and on the Space Shuttle, these have been replaced with context-aware computer screens. So now a pilot sees take-off instruments during takeoff and landing instruments during landing. LabView 6i makes it easier to create context-sensitive displays with a new view tab attribute node.

LabView and the Net

LabView 6i also introduces easy Internet ability. Any dial, gauge or even a whole instrument, can immediately become a publisher or a subscriber on the Internet. A simple way to think of this is that as you rotate a dial on your screen, anywhere on the Internet another linked dial can rotate.

The Internet uses many methods to transfer and track data. We're familiar with typing http:// or ftp://.. before a Web address. National Instruments has invented and sanctioned another method called the data transfer protocol, based on the well established TCP/IP. The prefix to a Web address is dtsp://..., and it makes possible very efficient near-real-time data transfer. Using data socket protocol is easy: Simply publish or subscribe any object, and on another computer list the path, dtsp://IP or DNS and the name of the target.

Scientists and engineers frequently need to print reports. In the past this required special programming, and the result might not have been particularly attractive, or might have required export to another program for formatting. LabView 6i incorporates many features from Internet Toolkit, an add-on package, making it easy to generate reports in standard HTML, readable by any browser. For instance, at the end of a test, a picture of the position of the dials can be captured, as well as the text of the notes or data. Using Internet ToolKit, data can even be enclosed in e-mail, time stamped, and sent to the appropriate recipient.

But wait, there's more

LabView is a programming environment. It includes an application builder that can finish your active project, and create not only a stand-alone application but even an installer. Previously it relied on a module called a code interface node (CIN) to enable users to add their own C++ components, but as standards in computer science have progressed, so has National Instruments. LabView now gives you the ability to compile Dynamic Load Libraries (DLL), which are more portable and can be accessed by other programs.

LabView has often been an early adopter of new operating system features, but this can be frustrating to users of other platforms. Publishing and subscribing was early nomenclature for Windows ActiveX, and LabView's earlier datasocket feature took advantage of it. With LabView 6i, Macintosh computers can now share the ability to publish or subscribe across platforms and the Internet.

LabView, by necessity, has previously incorporated advanced OS features such as preemptive multitasking, memory protection, multithreading and support for multiprocessing. A Mac OS X version now in the works will automatically be able to take advantage of these modern OS benefits.

Another good example of NI's cross-platform ingenuity and well-designed object-oriented programming is the Open dialog. The Open dialog, and the method to locate a file, are fundamentally different on other platforms. LabView programmers invented ways to put disparate parts of the code into containers that travel well, arriving intact (including their names!) at their destinations.

Who's using LabView?

Schools, researchers, biomechanists, audiologists, physicists, engineers, astronomers, physicians, chemists, psychologists, environmentalists, to name a few.

It's also a good environment to create simulations. A programmer can quickly produce samples of human interface designs for a new piece of software. An industrial designer can model a car dashboard, or perhaps a new stereo or CD player. A great advantage of LabView is its ability to manage projects from prototype to working tools; it natively connects to a large number of high-quality electronic devices, either on a plug-in card, or attached by serial, parallel or--now--via TCP/IP.

As a judge in various science fairs in the New York area, I often see LabView somewhere in student exhibits. It makes it easier for the student to move from idea to project, without losing their curiosity. I would like to see LabView show up in many more student science enhancement activities.

It doesn't take a big stretch of the imagination to realize LabView could be used to create great Internet appliances. It is increasingly showing up in many places as a way to see at a distance--to log-in for a little telescope time on the Hubble Space station, read weather gauges in Austin, listen for gun shots in New York, or measure the amount of vibration on the Tacoma bridge.

Is it difficult to learn?

The best answer is: It's as difficult as your task. Every tool is there, including convenience and performance. LabView 6i adds more power, more parity with the Windows version, a more 3D look, and a less intimidating set of manuals.

Other good programming tools are available, but few are as accessible as LabView. The full development package costs $1,995; upgrades from previous versions cost $395. Other details can be found on National Instruments' Web site.

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