Mixing Labview and QuickBasic?

[Ken Yasuda]

Hi.

I have a bunch of programs in Quick Basic. (Yes, I'm groaning
too, but right now they *work*.)

I'm in a situation where I have to control some additional devices
with the same machine. Dealing with the task of device I/O will be
much easier in Labview than in C or Basic.

My question is if it's possible to incorporate or integrate
Labview and Basic (or their executables) into one or the other program. I
don't need to pass variables if doing that is a huge bother. However, I
would like to integrate some control code partially in Labview and
partially in Basic if it will save me the time of recoding the
already-existing Basic software and carving out my own Labview drivers.

Do
es anybody have experience with this?

Thanks,

Ken

[Kevin_work]

Ken Yasuda wrote:

> Hi.
>
> I have a bunch of programs in Quick Basic. (Yes, I'm groaning
> too, but right now they *work*.)
>
> I'm in a situation where I have to control some additional devices
> with the same machine. Dealing with the task of device I/O will be
> much easier in Labview than in C or Basic.
>
> My question is if it's possible to incorporate or integrate
> Labview and Basic (or their executables) into one or the other program. I
> don't need to pass variables if doing that is a huge bother. However, I
> would like to integrate some control code partially in Labview and
> partially in Basic if it will save me the time of recoding the
> already-existing Basic software and carving out my own Labview drivers.
>
> Does
anybody have experience with this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ken

I would suggest that you look into the manuals reguarding
CINs, Call Library Function , and System Exec.vi
There are several ways to integrate external programs, etc into LabVIEW.
I do not know about Quick Basic, but if it can make DLLs, exes, then you are
in business.

Kevin Kent

[Douglas Canfield]

Ken,

Since Quick Basic runs in DOS there is no direct way to interface the two.
You could however easily share data through the use of data files.

Use the System Exec vi to call your QB program which will then read its
"parameter" file generated from LabVIEW. Then when the program is complete
create another data file with the results that LabVIEW can use.

I think under Win 3.X/95/98 you will still have access to your I/O devices,
but this will not be the case with WinNT/2000.

--Doug


Ken Yasuda wrote:
>>Hi. > > I have a bunch of programs in Quick Basic. (Yes, I'm groaning>too,
but right now they *work*.) > > I'm in a situation where I have to
control some additional devices>with the same machine. Deali
ng with the
task of device I/O will be>much easier in Labview than in C or Basic. > >
My question is if it's possible to incorporate or integrate>Labview
and Basic (or their executables) into one or the other program. I>don't
need to pass variables if doing that is a huge bother. However, I>would
like to integrate some control code partially in Labview and>partially in
Basic if it will save me the time of recoding the>already-existing Basic
software and carving out my own Labview drivers. > > Does anybody
have experience with this? > >Thanks,> >Ken >