National Instruments’ (NI) LabVIEW got its start way back in 1986. A graphical programming language that that uses a dataflow programming model, it has grown significantly since then. It had been a single platform since its inception, but atNI周2017, the company took a divergent path—at least for now—by jointly releasing LabVIEW 2017 and LabVIEW NXG.
Labview 2017(Fig. 1)is a natural progression of LabVIEW 2016. It contains major user interface (UI) and performance improvements. It maintains upward compatibility with its predecessors and will be the platform of choice for existing developers for existing projects.
Labview NXG(Fig. 2)是下一代LabView，一旦成为LabView功能的超集，将来将最终在将来的某个时候领导。在这一点上，它与Labview 2017具有很大的重叠，但具有新的UI和旨在改善用户体验的功能。
Labview NXGv1 (or LabVIEW NXG 2017) does not incorporate all of the features of LabVIEW 2017. It was just too difficult to incorporate all the changes that NXG developers came up with into LabVIEW 2017 while maintaining compatibility. LabVIEW NXG will be used by new LabVIEW developers, as well as by existing LabVIEW developers working on new projects. This is a migration path to LabVIEW NXG but developers need to keep in mind that some features are not available in LabVIEW NXG, at this point. The long-term goal is to make this migration totally seamless. At that point, LabVIEW NXG will become the only incarnation of LabVIEW. Migration of projects from LabVIEW NXG to LabVIEW 2017 is not supported.
尽管这是优先事项，但将LabView返回单个平台的合并可能不会发生。同时，查找Labview NXG的更频繁更新，以及合并更多新功能的更新。某些功能将被回到Labview 2017及其后续版本，直到平台团聚。
创建LabView NXG的主要原因之一是改善用户体验，尤其是对于新用户和新项目。为NI的CompactDAQ创建新项目突出了这种方法。LabView NXG将自动识别Compactrio的配置，包括各种已安装的模块。
LabView NXG将自动下载和安装和需要的驱动程序。另外，可以立即从LabView NXG用户界面配置每个模块。从本质上讲，LabView NXG为每个设备（例如模数转换器（ADC））创建一个小程序或虚拟仪器（VI）。LabView VI可以具有任何数量的配置参数，可以立即调整。然后可以将配置的VI复制并粘贴到项目中，在该项目中可以与其他VIS一起连接。
能够快速配置一个系统将干腊肠e on start-up time, as well as make it simpler for new LabVIEW users to get started. It allows a system to be tested without doing any LabVIEW programming, although that is the long-term intent of a project. This approach also lets a developer know that the hardware configuration matches their expectations and that it is operational.
LabVIEW is typically used in test-and-measurement applications that incorporate hardware—often hardware like NI’s CompactDAQ—but it is not limited to NI hardware, or any other hardware for that matter. LabVIEW can be used to create software applications that are not controlling hardware other than that needed to run the application and present a user interface.
LabView的目标硬件通常是基于PC的或类似于Compactrio的等效性的，但它还可以针对嵌入式硬件（例如微控制器甚至FPGA）。实际上，Compactrio是围绕FPGA建造的。LabView应用程序可以在基础硬件（例如X86处理器和FPGA）之间进行分配，但这是项目开发的一部分。这是LabView 2017超过LabView NXG当前版本的功能列表的一个领域。
The graphical G programming language and matching G compiler is common to both LabVIEW 2017 and LabVIEW NXG. This will make the eventual merging of the two development platforms easier in the future. NI also uses the open-source LLVM compiler as the backend for G.
NI is delivering LabVIEW 2017 and LabVIEW NXG in the same package, so the cost of choosing one platform over the other comes down to which features are desired by the developers. Developers may choose LabVIEW 2017 for supporting their existing projects or migrate some to LabVIEW NXG.
This dichotomy will remain in effect for a few years as the feature set of LabVIEW NXG increases and exclusive LabVIEW NXG features are eventually merged into the mainline version of LabVIEW. Both will be maintained and supported by NI, so LabVIEW NXG should be viewed as an alternate production development platform rather than an experimental instance.
