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Unread 31-12-2008, 20:10
Greg McKaskle Greg McKaskle is offline
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Re: Programs for the new FRC platform

The request was for opinions, and it has been interesting reading them. Most are very well stated. Working for NI, mine may not come as a suprise. Though keep in mind that most engineers at NI use both along with other engineering tools. I do have a few clarifications and counter opinions I'll add though.

Quote:
... merge ... is impossible with labview's binary file format.
The binary format of LV code is able to be diff'd and merge'd with the appropriate tools. I'm not exactly sure why those weren't included in the kit, but since they weren't, the point is valid. On the other hand, I've worked on large projects using LV and I haven't found myself using diff/merge very often. In large part it is because a VI file contains one function whereas in C++ it usually contains a class implementation or in C it will contain numerous functions. A code collision on unrelated C code in the same file is trivial to merge. A code collision within a single function regardless of the language requires much more thought and attention. In reality, a functional language like LV makes it easier than one with side-effects.

Quote:
... Labview is typically only used for data acquisition and industrial automation while the uses for C / C++ are endless. Anyone going into a software development career will need to learn C / C++ or a similar language in college. We're giving the students a huge head start by teaching them the concepts and the language before they get there.
This may not be news, but computer science is about much more than learning C/C++. A computer science student will learn a new language or two each semester and some classes won't involve programming at all, but will focus on the mathematics of computing. At this point LV is pretty rare around CS departments, but functional languages are a staple, and domain specific languages, which is how I typically describe LV, are becoming more common.

On the other hand, programming computers is also incredibly common in engineering and science disciplines, and domain specific languages or modeling languages are very common, rivaling the use of C/C++ because they allow for more emphasis on the engineering task and less on the programming task. In the end, just as there isn't one ideal degree, there isn't one ideal programming language.

Greg McKaskle