Although I have not used Labview, I have used a similiar product Matlab and it's associated program, Simulink, for the past four years on the GM Hybrid Program.
We used this platform to create the 2008 Model Year software for the recently released GMC Tahoe and Chevrolet Silverado. Simulink is a graphical based programming environment similar to Labview developed by Mathworks.
For those of you who have only used C/C++ environment, you will be missing out on all of the advantages of a graphical environment, most importantly the ability to debug your software on your desktop. You should be able to create
simple input functions that exercise your code and watch the output's respond.
Believe me, that functionality alone will quickly entice teams to make the switch from text based programming to graphical programming.
I am not certain what direction CD47 will go at this point. It appears that FIRST is leading us in the direction of Labview
while maintaining a legacy C-based environment.