I have experience in LabVIEW... for better or worse. I guess i'll just start out with some pro's cons for the language itself:
Pros: Insane amount of conenctivity options, rapid software prototyping, many built in Signal Processing filters and functions, little learning curve for very basic operations, graphical, great quick easy operator control pannels, easy integration of multiple high complexity sensing systems, C code snippets can be used, LabVIEW vi's can be compiled to ANSI standard dll's, can handle and optimize-compile for multiprocessor/multicore and 64bit processors, can compile to FPGAs, compatible with SolidWorks CosmosMOTION in-pc design mechatronics/programming full simulation system (run your code in a purely virtual full physical simulation environment)
Cons: MEMORY INEFFICIENT (all variables passed by value), LabVIEW code runs at decent speed but isn't the most efficient, code nearly impossible to document, debug difficult, code appears extremely complex, some fundamental features missing (ex, poor array functions), no zoom on editor (it sounds trivial but just try 'writing' code for a while), complex functions have large learning curve, debug sometimes difficult.
Now that's just LabVIEW.... NI hardware is AMAZING! I usually avoid labview but for some functions speed is not a huge issue, and the picture (code) you make isn't way too hard to read, then i sometimes use it favoring speed of development over execution efficiency and algorithmic power.
NI has a gigantic array of hardware... all of which is expensive for FIRST robot type price ranges and probably overkill... but wow... the thought of having a
PXI chassis on a robot with an
XPe computer card.... whoooo hoo. For those of you who arent familiar, you really should check out NI's hardware products... I've experience with their
M-cards (PXI I/O cards),
NI-Motion cards (fantastic performance! but $$$$$$), CAN-interface cards, Vision systems (
check out VBAI) and others.... all of them have performed with exemplary performance.
So, in my opinion, would it be cool to have a PXI or something of the sort NI hardware based controller? ABSOLUTELY! (provided we got hefty discounts)
Would I like to see LabVIEW show up on a FIRST controller? Not so much... I don't mind if its an option, but I'd still like to be able to write C, even if the C code runs within an NI framework... as long as the C code you can write is not in any way restricted (i.e. can still run arrays and such)
What do you all think....
-q