XP or 2000 Pro

[BrokenArrow]

Hi all!

If you had a system that ran 9 com ports and did a lot of file I/O, with multiple parallel loops, would you choose Windows XP or 2000 Pro? The choice IS limited to those two, no Linux or MS Bob, etc.

If you know of any reasons why one is better than another and can share that with me, I'd appreciate it.

THANKS!

p.s. this is for a built app LV 5.1.1

[Yair]

I would go with MS Bob.

Oh, you can't do that, sorry.

XP and 2000 use the same code base, so there shouldn't be that much of a difference between them, but I would probably go with XP, because it's newer and would have support for a longer time period. I haven't seen any serious issues with it if you take care of it properly.

It's also (probably) more likely to work with current and future hardware if you need to replace your serial interface.

As for working with 5.1, are you using VISA?

I remember trying to port a 5.1 application which used serial communication to XP and I eventually had to rebuild it in 7.0, but I'm not sure that was because of the serial comm and that one was using the old style serial VIs anyway.

[Neville D]

QUOTE(BrokenArrow @ Jul 17 2007, 05:51 AM)

Hi all!

If you had a system that ran 9 com ports and did a lot of file I/O, with multiple parallel loops, would you choose Windows XP or 2000 Pro? The choice IS limited to those two, no Linux or MS Bob, etc.

If you know of any reasons why one is better than another and can share that with me, I'd appreciate it.

THANKS!

p.s. this is for a built app LV 5.1.1

LV 5.1.1 probably isn't supposed to run on XP. Don't know about 2000 Pro; I would go with 2000 Pro for such and old application, just to make sure everything works.

Otherwise just re-build using a later version of LV (7.1.1 is pretty rock-solid, 8.2.1 isn't bad) and use XP.

Neville.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

I would use XP because it will have longer lifespan than 2000. I'm concerned about the LV5.1 aspect. My main concern is the LV drivers. Will the old 5.1 Drivers even install and work on XP? I think 5.1 uses the old serial VI's which don't use VISA.

[BrokenArrow]

Indeed, this old app uses the old serial drivers. It has to stay in 5.1 for reasons I won't go into here. Apparently, the old code does work on an XP system.

On a different application, when I converted it to 8.2.1, the old serial VI's caried over, but if you open them up, it's VISA.

Unfortunately, this one old program has to stay with the old serial port stuff (i.e 5.1).

I could probably have a good argument for taking the time to redo this old app in 8.2.1, based on the newer drivers.

What's the biggest drawback to the serial drivers of 5.1? I remember using them in 6.i, then switching over to VISA when 7.1 came out, but I don't remember the old stuff NOT working.

Richard

[Ton Plomp]

QUOTE(BrokenArrow @ Jul 17 2007, 08:43 PM)

What's the biggest drawback to the serial drivers of 5.1?

There's quite a discussion

with an interisting link why to kill the legacy serial IO

Ton

[Val Brown]

QUOTE(BrokenArrow @ Jul 17 2007, 11:43 AM)

Indeed, this old app uses the old serial drivers. It has to stay in 5.1 for reasons I won't go into here. Apparently, the old code does work on an XP system.

On a different application, when I converted it to 8.2.1, the old serial VI's caried over, but if you open them up, it's VISA.

Unfortunately, this one old program has to stay with the old serial port stuff (i.e 5.1).

I could probably have a good argument for taking the time to redo this old app in 8.2.1, based on the newer drivers.

What's the biggest drawback to the serial drivers of 5.1? I remember using them in 6.i, then switching over to VISA when 7.1 came out, but I don't remember the old stuff NOT working.

Richard

I have a slightly different perspective on this than do some others.

I would STRONGLY suggest using XP and maintaining the legacy serial driver routines (the ones using serpdrv). Not because they're necessarily better (there are problems with them) but simply because:

The code works using them.

Yes, I would update to LV 8.2.1 instead of keeping the legacy 5x code and, yes, it IS possible to still use the legacy serial i/o VIs in LV8.2.1 without using VISA. I do it with a large (1400+ subvi) project that I have developed and deployed beginning in LV5, all the way through the latest LV 8.2.1 release. Let me know back channel if I can be of any further help with this.

[Yair]

I vaguely remember having some problems with that (get serpdrv, put it in the right folder, watch it not working etc.), but the only thing I can say for sure is that the application was ported over to 7.0.

As you said, LV has the serial compatibility VIs, which maintain the old interface, but use VISA behind the scenes, but presumably they could disappear at some point in the future.

[Val Brown]

QUOTE(yen @ Jul 17 2007, 11:52 AM)

I vaguely remember having some problems with that (get serpdrv, put it in the right folder, watch it not working etc.), but the only thing I can say for sure is that the application was ported over to 7.0.

As you said, LV has the serial compatibility VIs, which maintain the old interface, but use VISA behind the scenes, but presumably they could disappear at some point in the future.

Actually what I'm talking about is using the legacy serial i/o VIs -- not using VISA. My deployed app, built in LV 8.2.1, uses the legacy serial i/o VIs and does not have VISA installed -- neither complete or runtime version.

If it ain't broke -- CONSIDER refactoring it as long as you don't "fix it" so well that it no longer works... ;-)

[BrokenArrow]

QUOTE(tcplomp @ Jul 17 2007, 02:49 PM)

There's quite a discussion

with an interisting link

why to kill the legacy serial IO

Ton

Great stuff, from the horse's mouth!

QUOTE(Val Brown @ Jul 17 2007, 02:50 PM)

....

I would STRONGLY suggest using XP and maintaining the legacy serial driver routines .....

OK, so I've got an opinion! Yes!

It has been our experience that XP and serpdrv work OK together. I'm sure VISA is better*, and I'd take a reduction in pay to be able to change our old 5.1 code to 8.2.1 / VISA, but they know it would be a month-long project, and we be a tiny company.

THANKS for all the suggestions.!

* VISA functions also have error in/out and more easily follow LabVIEW style. They are worth it for that alone. No one mentioned that, thought I would!

[Val Brown]

QUOTE(BrokenArrow @ Jul 17 2007, 01:21 PM)

Great stuff, from the horse's mouth!

OK, so I've got an opinion! Yes!

It has been our experience that XP and serpdrv work OK together. I'm sure VISA is better*, and I'd take a reduction in pay to be able to change our old 5.1 code to 8.2.1 / VISA, but they know it would be a month-long project, and we be a tiny company.

THANKS for all the suggestions.!

* VISA functions also have error in/out and more easily follow LabVIEW style. They are worth it for that alone. No one mentioned that, thought I would!

Absolutely the error flow is great but SOME measure of that can be implemented even with the legacy serial i/o VIs. The problem that I found with VISA was, quite simply, the amount of overhead that it took to support.

I also want to be clear -- you COULD change your code to LV 8.2.1 and NOT use VISA but continue to use the legacy i/o VIs. THAT is what I've done with our current deployed code, which runs on XP as well as Vista.

[Yair]

QUOTE(Val Brown @ Jul 17 2007, 10:14 PM)

Actually what I'm talking about is using the legacy serial i/o VIs -- not using VISA. My deployed app, built in LV 8.2.1, uses the legacy serial i/o VIs and does not have VISA installed -- neither complete or runtime version.

Do you have the RT module installed on that PC?

If I remember correctly, there are two versions of the legacy VIs - one which uses VISA internally and another which uses serpdrv. I remember seeing the second kind in a computer with RT installed, but I suppose it's also possible it is installed by default if you do not install VISA.

[Val Brown]

QUOTE(yen @ Jul 18 2007, 03:23 AM)

Do you have the RT module installed on that PC?

If I remember correctly, there are two versions of the legacy VIs - one which uses VISA internally and another which uses serpdrv. I remember seeing the second kind in a computer with RT installed, but I suppose it's also possible it is installed by default if you do not install VISA.

No I'm not using RT and no the legacy serial i/o VIs are not installed by default any longer (since about v7x I believe) in their original form. Since v7x (or so) what were called the Legacy Serial i/o or Compatibility i/o VIs were just wrappers for VISA calls. The original "legacy" serial i/o VIs used the serpdrv file and to use them now requires copying some additional libraries to overwrite/replace the standard serial library. It's not difficult to do but you have to use the actual, legacy VIs etc or you will just be left with wrapper for VISA calls.