[Gdeaver]

In the discussions concerning the new First RC, this is the first time anybody has pointed to a complete hardware, firmware and software commercial platform that could be wrapped up and used as a total competition system.
I started a post - chicken or the egg. Taking about the software with out looking at the hardware to me makes no sense. Someone has to integrate all the pieces into a system we can use. With NI Labveiw and the cRIO this has already been done. The question is can this system take us forward and deal with the future. What if 3 years from now a semiconductor company came to First and said that they will provide to each team a 3-axis accelerometer evaluation board. By the way it's a low voltage xyz buss interface. Could the NI system use this device? Can our current system? Or, What if a automotive supplier offered a intelligent ECM servomotor gear box assembly for a fantastic price and it uses a can interface. Could the NI stuff use it? Can our current controller.
When I was taking CS, I was told FORTRAN was thee language for technical programming and was drilled in it. C was an odd language only for those Unix nuts. I was told there is no job market for C. Learn Fortran and Cobol and you'll have a job. Data flow is a totally different mindset. It will drive competent low level programmers crazy.
My son is a 3rd year ME student and many of his labs are designed around the NI platform. To him, It's just the way it's done.