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I can write programs in LabVIEW in a few hours that would take me weeks in another language. Not all of that is due to the graphical nature, most probably due t

I can write programs in LabVIEW in a few hours that would take me weeks in another language. Not all of that is due to the graphical nature, most probably due to the domain specificity and IDE integration. LabVIEW makes it super easy to create GUIs, visualise data and debug whilst running.

throwaway894345 6y ago
I've used a bit of LabVIEW; my hunch is that LabVIEW's standard library has high level components, which it can provide because its niche is so narrow. You could make a similar framework or library in a general purpose language. The other thing LabVIEW provides is a comprehensive solution for project management--many general purpose programming languages give you half-assed package and dependency management (less than half-assed if you're dealing with C or C++) and some make you learn an entirely different programming or configuration language or just to list your dependencies or make your tests runnable. Those are the big rocks that make LabVIEW easier than most general purpose programming languages; however, if you're comparing LabVIEW to C, there are many other advantages, notably garbage collection and abstraction--things that are common in high level programming languages (anyone who says C is a HLL can see themselves out). The visual language is gravy compared to the standard library and the integrated programming environment.
marcosdumay 6y ago
Ouch. I can write programs in LabVIEW in a few hours that would take me weeks in another language. I can also write programs in LabVIEW in a few weeks that would take weeks in another language. And I can write programs in LabVIEW in many months that would take weeks in another language. The largest maker of a bad language is that it doesn't matter how long you work on it, you just get less and less productive and your program actually goes nowhere.

throwaway894345 6y ago

I've used a bit of LabVIEW; my hunch is that LabVIEW's standard library has high level components, which it can provide because its niche is so narrow. You could make a similar framework or library in a general purpose language. The other thing LabVIEW provides is a comprehensive solution for project management--many general purpose programming languages give you half-assed package and dependency management (less than half-assed if you're dealing with C or C++) and some make you learn an entirely different programming or configuration language or just to list your dependencies or make your tests runnable. Those are the big rocks that make LabVIEW easier than most general purpose programming languages; however, if you're comparing LabVIEW to C, there are many other advantages, notably garbage collection and abstraction--things that are common in high level programming languages (anyone who says C is a HLL can see themselves out). The visual language is gravy compared to the standard library and the integrated programming environment.

marcosdumay 6y ago

Ouch. I can write programs in LabVIEW in a few hours that would take me weeks in another language. I can also write programs in LabVIEW in a few weeks that would take weeks in another language. And I can write programs in LabVIEW in many months that would take weeks in another language. The largest maker of a bad language is that it doesn't matter how long you work on it, you just get less and less productive and your program actually goes nowhere.