Understanding NXT / OSX use with LabView

[DrAnonymous]

I have an NXT and have been using the IDE that came with it.  I believe most call it NXT-G.  When I heard about the release of the NI toolkit for use with the NXT, I was excited to download it and try out new features.

From what I understand only a windows version has been supplied for download.  Can someone answer the following -

- Is there a way to use LabView with the NXT on a Mac?

- Is there a free NI download for OSX?

- If someone doesn't have LabView, but they want to develop new blocks for the NXT, what options are there for OSX development?

- Slightly in the weeds, but - How do blocks work 'under the hood'?  I'm a programmer by trade, but have no experience with LabView.  Do the blocks get compiled down to NBC, which is then transfered to the NXT brick?

Regards,
Aaron R>

[John Field]

- Is there a way to use LabView with the NXT on a Mac?
Yes, LabVIEW does support the Mac. For the release of the NXT toolkit, we decided to make available versions of the 7.1 student edition which we only build for Windows. Regular LabVIEW is at least $1K and so, not reasonable for most hobbiests.

I can tell you that the Windows version of the NXT toolkit and drivers run great under Apple's Boot Camp or the Parallels software. This would be another great reason to get an Intel-based Mac. 🙂 Once you are on an Intel-Mac, you could request the 7.1 student edition for NXT development.

- Is there a free NI download for OSX?
Unfortunately, not at this time.

- If someone doesn't have LabView, but they want to develop new blocks for the NXT, what options are there for OSX development?
LabVIEW is the only block authoring tool. NXT-G was actually built using a special version of LabVIEW and so, I don't see a way around that for quite some time.

- Slightly in the weeds, but - How do blocks work 'under the hood'?  I'm a programmer by trade, but have no experience with LabView.  Do the blocks get compiled down to NBC, which is then transfered to the NXT brick?
LabVIEW is a graphical, dataflow programming language. There are essentially three main callback functions to any block and they are all implemented in LabVIEW: the configuration pane that is in the bottom-left corner, the code that the graphical compiler parses and a LabVIEW VI (similar to a function) that draws the block on the NXT-G diagram. There are other VIs as well, but those are the main ones.

As for the compile, we traverse the dataflow graph, convert it to an intermediate graph language and generate the rxe files from there. NI also wrote the VM that runs on the brick that will, in turn, parse and execute the programs. NBC is a byte code language that was written later to work with the VM inside the NXT.

- john

[DrAnonymous]

John -

Thanks for the details.  I'm sad / frustrated there isn't a Mac solution right now, that doesn't involve purchasing LabView.  Are there any plans, however distant, to make a release that Mac users would have access to just like the Windows folks?

So Mac users (non intel based) only option is to be happy with what we have, purchase LabView, or switch to another development environment for the NXT.    Sigh...

I don't suppose me starting a one man campaign to get a Mac version is going to get very far with those in charge at NI is it?

Thanks again for the info.

Regards,
Aaron R>