How would you introduce LabVIEW to a group of Text-Based Programmers

[cvanvlack]

Hi Everyone,

 

I've recently been attending a local developers group and listening to how other people/companies are dealing with all of the various things that come up when dealing with software project management. Most of these guys are web developers but it's my turn to contribute to the group and I thought an introduction to LabVIEW as an alternative way of programming would be nice to mix things up for them.

 

My question is: If you were going to present LabVIEW to a group of text-based programmers, what would you cover?

 

Right now, I think my focus will be on answering these questions

 

1. Who uses LabVIEW? -> Engineers, and scientists that have to interface with hardware (not strictly true, but if hardware is not involved that really opens up the available language choices).
2. What Applications is it well suited for? -> Go over any number of applications involving DAQ, IMAQ, etc... We have plenty from our own company to give a taste.
3. What about LabVIEW makes it well suited for those applications? -> i) Graphical programming and dataflow offer a nice visual representation that maps nicely to things like state machines, controlling hardware, etc... ii) NI has solved a lot of the driver issues and obviously offers hardware that works well with LabVIEW, iii) Writing parallel processes in LabVIEW is MUCH easier than in text based programs, iv) iterative development is especially fast
   

Finally, I was going to follow up by covering a number of the topics here and wire up a small application. If I can get it organized, we have DAQ's controlling lasers read by cameras so I may get the hardware setup and show how to turn on and off a light source and view it.

 

What would you do any differently?

 

[chrylarson]

If they are web developers, I'd show them LabVIEW 2013 Web Services. (before LabVIEW 2013 web services were tricky.) They should be able to create RESTful APIs for their front ends with LabVIEW. Graphical programming might even be quicker for them to prototype with. 

[cvanvlack]

Not a bad idea! I was approaching it from the "here is a tool, and here is the problems it's best suited to solving" rather than "here is a tool, here is how it could solve your problems.

 

I'll have to browse through some of the examples as I haven't had much experience with the LabVIEW web services. Hopefully there is something that is neat enough out of the box that I can show them.

[Yair]

I would probably put some focus on the computer science concepts behind LV. Data flow is a different paradigm and understanding that it has an actual CS background can help them appreciate LV more as well as open their minds.

[Mads]

I would show them (optionally just parts of) 

...and then link that to graphical programming and LabVIEW. 

 

Showing them how a number of organizations, like CERN, SpaceX...or smaller companies, like the one I'm from - ClampOn!) utilize LabVIEW could also bring in some motivation. There are a lot of text-coders out there, LabVIEW experience is less of a commodity.

[ShaunR]

If they are web developers, I'd show them LabVIEW 2013 Web Services. (before LabVIEW 2013 web services were tricky.) They should be able to create RESTful APIs for their front ends with LabVIEW. Graphical programming might even be quicker for them to prototype with. 

 

I wouldn't. It's LabVIEWs weakest domain and there are far better tools out there that they will already be familiar with, which LabVIEW can't touch. Worse than that, though is that Webservices only run on Windows and I will guarantee 99% of their work is on Linux web servers using Apache and to a lesser extent,  Nginx. There is not a lot you can answer to "how do I integrate LabVIEW with our Apache server?".

 

However. You can gloss over all that, just don't "demonstrate" web servers/ apps! Instead you can show them one of LabVIEWs strengths (such as Vision),and say "we can also make it available on the web" -TADA! (without going into how, too much ).

[hooovahh]

However. You can gloss over all that, just don't "demonstrate" web servers/ apps! Instead you can show them one of LabVIEWs strengths (such as Vision),and say "we can also make it available on the web" -TADA! (without going into how, too much ).

You don't work for NI marketing do you?

[cvanvlack]

Hooovahh, I am a physicist-turned-developer and I work at a start-up that makes depth monitoring systems for laser processing (laser welding, laser cutting, etc...). I have no affiliations with NI other than we use their products. Part of the reason for going to this developers group is it's nice to "talk shop" with other developers, even if they aren't graphical. I am looking into getting a LabVIEW user group started in my area though.

 

I would probably put some focus on the computer science concepts behind LV. Data flow is a different paradigm and understanding that it has an actual CS background can help them appreciate LV more as well as open their minds.

 

Yair, I did a quick search on dataflow vs. procedural and I think I can highlight the differences between the two. If you've come across any really good material on this though, I'd love to see it.

 

ShaunR, I did a quick look into some of the web server stuff this weekend and since it's not something I have worked in, and it's something they will want a lot of details about if I'm suggesting that this is a tool they could use, I think I am going to avoid it. I can see the questions quickly getting out of my area of expertise!

[hooovahh]

Hooovahh, I am a physicist-turned-developer and I work at a start-up that makes depth monitoring systems for laser processing

What I said was meant to be a joke as I was quoting ShaunR.  His suggestion to gloss over things that look good on the surface but have gaping holes when you go to use them yourself, is a familiar feeling I have had when seeing NI demonstrate some products.

 

EDIT:  And thank you for spelling my name right.

[cvanvlack]

Ahhh, I

 

What I said was meant to be a joke as I was quoting ShaunR.  His suggestion to gloss over things that look good on the surface but have gaping holes when you go to use them yourself, is a familiar feeling I have had when seeing NI demonstrate some products.

 

EDIT:  And thank you for spelling my name right.

 

Ahhh, I missed the quote when it popped up in my email and then didn't scroll up!

 

It's not the first time a joke has gone over my head though.

[cvanvlack]

I would show them (optionally just parts of) 

...and then link that to graphical programming and LabVIEW. 

 

Showing them how a number of organizations, like CERN, SpaceX...or smaller companies, like the one I'm from - ClampOn!) utilize LabVIEW could also bring in some motivation. There are a lot of text-coders out there, LabVIEW experience is less of a commodity.

 

Mads, I finally got a chance to finish that video and it's a GREAT video. I posted it to our group board so hopefully some people will see it before hand but if there are any objections I have written down the times of some of the key sections.

 

Thanks!