NI GDS LabVIEW version

[GregSands]

My comment got lost in the main post so I've started a separate discussion.

Whereas GDS 4.7 was (is) available for LabVIEW 2010 up, the NI GDS is only available for LV 2013.  What versions will be supported by NI GDS, and correspondingly, what version should code modification be done in? 

[vishots.com]

Based on what's been stated. I would think NI is only supporting the NI GDS. It makes sense to only use and report issues on that one.

[GregSands]

Yep  that's what I was referring to - the LV version(s) appropriate for NI GDS.  Is it NI's intention to only support LV 2013 up (as per the initial release), with new coding to be done in LV 2013, or is there still room for supporting earlier LV versions?

[AristosQueue (NI)]

The installer is currently complicated. Although the resulting code supports only 2013, at the moment, the code base is entirely in 2010. I *want* to move the code base to 2013, but have not done so yet.

Ideally you would send me changes made in 2010, but I realize you don't have the files for 2010, which makes that really difficult. But you can save for previous...

I think the best plan for the short term is this:

• If you can get your changes saved to 2010, please do so.
• If you cannot, please post them in 2013 and I'll take care of backporting if I integrate them in.

I was rushing to get the installer available to everyone and still working out the details of code submission back. Over the next couple months, I hope to make that work.

As an ongoing project... this is the first time I've actually had sign off from The Powers That Be to try this sort of community development.  There will be a lot to work out. Like, ideally, a better way to share source code changes than posting zip files. Wouldn't that be lovely? Still working on that.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

As for developing for older versions -- we could, at the moment, release for the older versions, but maintaining the older code is really cumbersome. There's a lot of cruft I'd like to shed. As this is in many ways a new product for NI, we made the call to just go forward and if you wanted to purchase for the older versions, you could still get that from Symbio. By not ever releasing the NI version for the older LV versions, we make it clear where we are supporting from.

There is an interesting open question of how much back support will be maintained over time. Do we fork at LV 2014 and add new features that work only in the 2014 installer with maybe bug fixes in the 2013 branch? Do we stay in 2013 forever? I honestly don't know the answer to these questions. At the moment, I'm happy to move the code to 2013 and then hold it there for a long while.

I keep saying "I" -- usually when I'm talking about LabVIEW decisions, I use "we" because there's a whole lot of people involved, but I've kind of been given a free hand on this one. It's an experiment with the community. It's also not my core job, so some decisions may come down to "whichever requires less effort", which is a terrible decision principle, but I want to properly set expectations here. It's also why in the coming months I want to get as much of this project into community hands as possible. 😉

[MikaelH]

FYI, you don't need to pay for Symbio's version any more.

The free activation key is: GOOP-GOOP-GOOP-GOOP-GOOP

So if you need the older versions, you can still downlaod them from: www.symbio.com/goop

[GregSands]

Thanks - your second post pre-empted one I was just writing!  I presume one reason for shifting the code base to 2013 is to best integrate with the Actor Framework.  Are there other significant reasons?  Outlining the rationale for settling on a version might help make the shift from "I" to "we".

[vishots.com]

In my opinion, if the code's in 2010 then keep it there. Build a VIP file with 2010 support and then let VIPM up-compile automatically on install. That's the strategy most toolkit developers do. Build it in the lowest LV version you can technically do it in, and then distribute that.

[GregSands]

MikaelH wrote:

FYI, you don't need to pay for Symbio's version any more.

The free activation key is: GOOP-GOOP-GOOP-GOOP-GOOP

So if you need the older versions, you can still download them from: www.symbio.com/goop

Yes, and thanks very much!!  (I was writing the same in my pre-empted  post).

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Mikael himself was strongly in favor of getting rid of the cruft that allows this toolkit to work in the older versions. I think he already dropped that code from his copy after he forked the copy to NI. Developing in anything lower than 2012 requires a lot of arcane magic -- 2012 added the AF, yes, but also a lot of facilities for replicating projects and VI settings. I've spent several months holding my tongue in the right corner of my mouth while jumping on one foot, and I'm not willing to do that much longer.

2013 is where multiple people here at NI chose to start this project and move forward from there. How we move forward is open to discussion, but backporting to older stuff is something I'll leave for the community if they get industrious.