The 2009 Control System Q&A Thread

[Greg McKaskle]

Originally Posted by dcbrown

Q. The WPILIB functionality will include both LV and C libraries, but will exisiting NI LV libraries be converted into C libraries for team use also (such as aforementioned PID) or remain available in LV only? If C library form will eventually be available, is NI, FIRST, or WPI responsible for the conversion?

I'm not sure about across the board. From the beginning, we intended to have WPILIB and vision in both languages. For other libraries that are made available in LV, NI may be able to provide C versions if they exist, or wrappers to any underlying C code. But the word converted implies an automatic process, and in case it isn't clear, LV doesn't convert to C, so that isn't an option. Since the goal is really to have a nice parity and symmetry between C and LV, I think between NI, WPI, and the rest of the community, we will have a really nice set of libraries for both languages.

Originally Posted by dcbrown

Q. When will the VxWorks C/C++ API as it currently exists (without FIRST/WPILIB add ons) on cRIO be released to FIRST teams from NI? For example, RPTs are not supported and there is a special driver/interface to the FPGA as an add on to VxWorks for the cRIO.

The toolchain can already be downloaded from WindRiver, as can a demo of LV from NI. C tools targetted for cRIO aren't currently a standard product, so I'm afraid that the first availability will be nearer to when the HW is available.

Greg McKaskle