Scripts versus Labview

People have always been asking tHim what she has been doing for the past few months. Well, I tell them that I have been working on programming this Bluetooth device in Labview and everyone will go, what? So I decided to do a really short write up on what Labview really is.

Think about script languages such as Java, C++, Handel-C etc, when we want to write an If-then-else statement, we always do this:

If <condition>

then <predicate>

else <predicate>

Where condition is something the statement must satisfy while predicates are statements that will be carried out as accordance to how the condition is satisfied.

In Labview, which is essentially a graphical programming language, i.e. you draw diagrams to program, you literally draw the the If-then-else statement with your mouse.

Look at this picture: (Click to enlarge)

This diagram translates to => if (isSPP==true) then UUIDin=UUIDout && Channelin=Channelout;

You see your variables as rectangles on the left side of the canvas and on the right side, you contain your predicates within the square (which they call a “case loop” but is in essence an If-then-else equivalent), connect a boolean variable to the square and presto, you have your if-then-else!

Easy peasy but can be a tad confusing for people who are used to writing scripts.

Now you guys know what’s Labview!