Hi All,
I read a comment on the forum recently which said the last major game-changing change to LabVIEW was the addition of the event structure a few years ago. The post may have been made before OO was implemented;-)
Anyhow that just got me thinking - LabVIEW is over 25 years old now and I was wondering what is the IP status of the language itself. I'm not talking about any new features and so on but the actual programming language - wires into subVIs, shift registers, for loops, while loops and all that!.
I guess this question could be generalised to any proprietary programming language after a set period of time - is it covered by copyright or is it covered by a portfolio of patents which will lapse after 17 odd years? Its it covered as a design like Coca-Cola's contour bottle?
I know there are other graphical programming languages out there but I don't think any have had the market penetration LabVIEW has had - and hence a critical mass of programmers who are comfortable with it. At this stage (if its covered by patents rather than copyright) could a competitor of NI's copy the programming features implemented 17year ago (LabVIEW 3.0 - never used it but I guess it had for loops, while loops, shift registers, subVIs and the rest of the basics)?
I'm in work on a saturday when I shouldn't be....hence needing the distraction of the question!
Dave
PS I would like to catagorically state that I have no intention now or in the foreseeable future in writing my very own grapical programming language;-)
