NI-DAQmx 8.7.2

[softball]

Hi

Thanks to Rolf for the clarification and confirmation that this was the release for Traditional NI-DAQ (Legacy) 7.5.

The embedded readme in 7.5 is the same as the previous 7.4.4 release showing version 7.4.4f5.

So, just for completeness, I now installed it and indeed its splash said 7.5. And MAX shows this :

So, an initial Alpha version. I think NI should remove 7.5 from the official list of releases.

I guess NI had trouble figuring out what a version of NI-DAQ should refer to at that time.

- Was it only the old school NI-DAQ, eventually renamed to 'Traditional NI-DAQ (Legacy)'.

- Was it the new NI-DAQmx product.

- Was it a new version line of the bundle of 'Traditional NI-DAQ ( Legacy )' and NI-DAQmx.

The mentioned NI-DAQmx 7.5 can be downloaded here ( as a NIDAQ file ) :

The ZIP file includes an embedded readme for the package starting with this :

And the old school NI-DAQ readme also included in the zip file says this :

But opening the readme shown on the webpage screendump shows this :

So figuring what is installed and works, and not, is really a big trial and error game.

This may seem as irrelevant, 20 years later, but NI sold a lot of systems those days ..

Regards

[rolfk]

This is the reality of software development and releases. 7.4.4 was supposed to be the last Traditional NI DAQ version. NI maintained that for quite some time but there were some loud cries for another version with some bug fixes and full support for recently released Windows versions.

Someone, somewhere eventually seemingly decided to create such a version but it never was fully finished, likely because the project was abandoned by higher forces. NI-DAQ 7.5 never was officially announced and was simply a semi-secret stop gap solution for people happening to want to use the traditional DAQ with the newer Windows systems and running into problems with the official 7.4.4 version. Equally, DAQmx 7.5 was a preview release to give early adopters a sneak view on what is going to come. The real DAQmx version started with 8.0. Was the whole planning perfect? No of course not, and the reality is that it never is. Software development is an iterative process that is by definition about creating newer and usually improved versions. Perfect software does not exist, period! If you want to wait for a perfect software release, it will never be released.

20 years after the fact this is all nothing more than an anecdotal reality. Trying to get upset about it now is about as useful as crying over spilled beans.

[softball]

Hi again

Again thanks to Rolf for giving useful comments to otherwise non-documented releases.

NI is a complicated ship to navigate. They produce hardware. And they produce software components. But no long-life complete solution, like a standalone Tektronix Scope. This is the basic idea behind LabVIEW.

The software runs off arbitrary quality PC's and stops functioning at some stage due to whatever OS change or other reason, maybe security problems.

I love my splendid 20 years old Audi, which gives me a pleasure to ride in. But the mechanic says I have to scrap it, because it has not passed current crash tests. Not a true story.

But maintaining a 20 year old test system. Forget it. Buy something new. 

Regards

PS : I developed a test system 25 years ago for one product. It is still maintained, now testing 250+ products including support for the old ones and will likely run for several more years.