werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (09/08/86)
RE: program LabView from National Instruments, Austin TX Net-friends, a little while ago, I posted an article on LabView, a DataFlow-inspired programming system to simulate electronic instruments and expressed my hope to be able to provide more information soon. Today I uploaded a complete 'slide-show' which describes the product. However, given that the files are rather large (~500K, 30+ Paint-files) and the information is provided "as is" from NI and is not a "critical" review (may even include a little 'marketing hype') I can only make them available for FTP for a limited time on UT-NGP.ARPA alias "ngp.utexas.edu" ( login with "Anonymous" and change to directory "public/LabView" ) Our site-entry in NIC's HOSTS-table is: HOST : 10.0.0.62, 128.83.1.24 : NGP.UTEXAS.EDU,UT-NGP.ARPA,UT-NGP,UTEXAS-NGP,NG! P : VAX-11/780 : UNIX : TCP/TELNET,TCP/FTP,TCP/SMTP,ICMP,UDP,UDP/DOMAIN : please, be considerate and do not FTP our site during prime working hours to access large files like these. my neck (which is stuck out) thanks you (-: I will leave it to the moderator of INFO-MAC to decide if all/some of the material should be archived at SUMEX (I doubt it, though) and I'll, probably, make some selected Paint-docs available on a USENET news-group. People with serious interest (and intentions to spend Kilo-bucks) can, probably, get the slideshow on disk directly from NI (my guess, I didn't ask them about it). They can be reached via 1-800-531-4742 (outside TX) and (512)250-9119 or TELEX from overseas. I have another piece of "good news". The folks at NI got hold of my earlier posting and are now seriously considering my suggestion of making a crippled demo available (maybe even an "educational version", who knows) - your support of this idea when you contact them, might help. My personal guess is also that researchers with "track record" and ideas to use LabView in something resulting in publications, may also be in a good position to negotiate with NI to become a "Beta-test-site". NI also plans to establish a BBS to support their customers, and, hopefully, find some unused microVax to hook into USEnet. (I was told Friday that NI plans to ship a release-version before the end of this month, and, given that I DO NOT have a beta-version, I have no idea how close the actual product is to the one described in the slide-show) If nothing else, I hope you appreciate and enjoy what seems to me to be a great user-interface and very nicely prepared demo-slideshow. As you all know, the *REAL* programs tend to have bugs, caveat emptor .... If the program (and related hardware) has no "monster-bugs", I expect this program to receive its share of industry-praise ... Ohh, and don't miss looking at the Paint-docs on paper or with the likes of DA PaintGrabber or MacPaint; slideshow only displays the top-left corner, there is explanatory text in the lower half of the Paint-doc.` ------------------ [ a sample FTP-session follows .... first under UNIX then TOPS-20 ] [ try first with only file SlideShow.pit.hqx and 1 or 2 small Slide-files ] ftp ftp> open ngp [ or ut-ngp, ut-ngp.ARPA, ngp.utexas.edu, ...] Connected to ngp.utexas.edu. 220 ngp FTP server (Version 4.82 Tue Jan 3 14:56:35 CST 1984) ready. Name: anonymous Password: [use 'guest' or your userid] 331 Guest login ok, send ident as password. [right, now you tell me ...] 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. ftp> cd public/LabView [ upper/lower case significant !!! ] 200 CWD command okay. ftp> dir 200 PORT command okay. 150 Opening data connection for /bin/ls (128.83.1.24,5008) (0 bytes). total 507 -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 5036 Sep 7 16:16 SlideShow.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 65207 Sep 7 12:50 Slides.a1-9.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 111799 Sep 7 13:13 Slides.b1-9.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 58045 Sep 7 13:56 Slides.c1-5.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 54978 Sep 7 14:14 Slides.c6-9.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 43007 Sep 7 14:37 Slides.d1-4.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 31978 Sep 7 15:16 Slides.d5-9.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 39189 Sep 7 15:51 Slides.e1-5.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 25088 Sep 7 15:58 Slides.e6-9.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 32132 Sep 7 16:05 Slides.f1-4.pit.hqx -rw-r--r-- 1 807 20 25638 Sep 7 16:12 Slides.f5-7.pit.hqx 226 Transfer complete. 834 bytes received in 5.48 seconds (0.15 Kbytes/s) ftp> get Slides.f5-7.pit.hqx [ for example ...] ........ ftp> bye 221 Goodbye. ngp_werner> ----------------- [ from TOPS-20 .... ] EXEC: ftp ngp.utexas.edu [Keeping Ftp] < ngp FTP server (Version 4.82 Tue Jan 3 14:56:35 CST 1984) ready. Setting default transfer type to ascii, byte size 8. FTP>logIN (user) anonymous Password: < Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. FTP>connECT (to directory) public/LabView < CWD command okay. FTP> get ..... [ All Disclaimers apply !!! Just Mac-excitement, that's all.... .... but, I understand that the recognized Mac-authorities really flipped over the program at Boston, and that the local IBMers pushing RTs just sadly shook their head when given a demo..... ((-: ]