LabVIEW on Mini Laptops

[jbrohan]

Hello

I'm very interested to try and leverage the new low cost PC's in various monitoring applications that we make in LV. The issue that I face is that I've a licensse to use LV on Windows, but not on Linux and It's easier to choose a Windows based computer than the more natural Linux one because of the issues of acquiring a new version of LV.

Recently I've begun using the option in the build application where a small caller application calls a llb library with the LV source code. Is it possible to have a generic small loader app and avoid the expense of a whole development version of LV for Linux and just use the code I make for the Win versions?

Do others face the same issues? How have you approached a solution?

John

[Anders Björk]

QUOTE (jbrohan @ Jun 9 2008, 11:40 AM)

Hello

I'm very interested to try and leverage the new low cost PC's in various monitoring applications that we make in LV. The issue that I face is that I've a licensse to use LV on Windows, but not on Linux and It's easier to choose a Windows based computer than the more natural Linux one because of the issues of acquiring a new version of LV.

Recently I've begun using the option in the build application where a small caller application calls a llb library with the LV source code. Is it possible to have a generic small loader app and avoid the expense of a whole development version of LV for Linux and just use the code I make for the Win versions?

Do others face the same issues? How have you approached a solution?

John

Some windows programs are runable under linux using Wine. But I guess it would require a lot of tweaking with labview applications, do use a lot of IOs?

[Ton Plomp]

QUOTE (jbrohan @ Jun 9 2008, 11:40 AM)

Recently I've begun using the option in the build application where a small caller application calls a llb library with the LV source code. Is it possible to have a generic small loader app and avoid the expense of a whole development version of LV for Linux and just use the code I make for the Win versions?

I don't think this will work, you most likely need to recompile the code (esp. if you have special OS disabled structures), I doubt that the Runtime can do recompile of such items.

Ton

[shoneill]

QUOTE (tcplomp @ Jun 9 2008, 02:08 PM)

I don't think this will work, you most likely need to recompile the code (esp. if you have special OS disabled structures), I doubt that the Runtime can do recompile of such items.

Ton

No, the runtime cannot recompile the code.

When a VI is saved, the compiled code is saved with it. It can only be re-compiled using the development environment. This means that if anyone wants to offer "cross-platform" VIs, they still need to provide several versions, even if the source code behind them is identical.

It's not a situation which sits well with me regarding NI's multi-platform claims and marketing, but it's just the way it is. There ARE technical reasons for having it that way, so maybe Aristos can shed some more light on it....

Shane.

[Justin Goeres]

QUOTE (shoneill @ Jun 9 2008, 05:14 AM)

It's not a situation which sits well with me regarding NI's multi-platform claims and marketing, but it's just the way it is. There ARE technical reasons for having it that way, so maybe Aristos can shed some more light on it....

It's no different than C or REALBasic or any other compiled language that has a compiler for multiple platforms. Unless NI were to completely change the runtime so LabVIEW compiled down to a platform-independent bytecode (like, I guess, Java?), different platforms will always require a recompile.

A different, but vastly bigger, cross-platform-support issue in LabVIEW is how it http://thinkinging.com/2007/08/19/password-protecting-vis-is-security-through-obscurity/' rel='nofollow' target="_blank">prevents you from securing your code.

[Yair]

QUOTE (jbrohan @ Jun 9 2008, 12:40 PM)

How have you approached a solution?

At least the eee should be available with XP. It's more expensive than Linux, but still much cheaper than any other laptop. I've been thinking of using it for the same purposes, but didn't get into checking it yet.

Buying a single LabVIEW for Linux license will only be worth it if you're going to have a lot of these stations, since the cost will not be just the license, but also the integration and management (e.g. SCC, cross-platform bugs, etc.).