Rolf, The Open-G VISA idea sounds really interesting. I am a bit wary of open source because it seems difficult to make an installation that is a combination of open source code and proprietary code, and meet the rules for distributing open source code while still protecting the proprietary code. If you have any ideas about how to make this issue easier to deal with I would be interested in working on the Open-G VISA library.
Allen -----Original Message----- From: Rolf Kalbermatter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 1:28 AM To: 'C. Allen Weekley' Cc: Info LabVIEW (E-mail) Subject: RE: API Serial Functions "C. Allen Weekley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Yes. My company manufactures a variety of instruments that communicate >solely with serial. We have been using NI-VISA and are happy with it, >but NI-VISA requires an installation that is often larger than the >application we supply to our customers, and there are licensing >restrictions for distribution. I was hoping to develop our own serial >functions in a much smaller package than NI-VISA. This is why I am >interested in using the Windows API. NI-VISA with its support for so >many kinds of instruments seems like overkill for our application. When >the customer installs the NI-VISA driver they end up installing >features to support GPIB etc. that are not needed for our application. Well, I see. Just forget about my previous mail then, will you. I have started some work on a VISA32.DLL replacement which I intend to release as Open-G VISA library. It is far from complete and I have only worked on Windows yet but intend to actually push the Linux version more. It is structured similar as NI-VISA with VISA32.DLL as top level API and low level plugin DLLs which provide support for particular VISA resource types. The first I have started with is serial of course, but it is as I said not functional at all yet. I still need some common infrastructure libraries as well. I was intending to get something working before putting it out, but it is geoing slow and it will take quite some time before I get there. If you would be interested in working on that as well I could create an Open-G subproject and put up what I have so far so that you could take a look at it and work yourself on it as well. Rolf Kalbermatter CIT Engineering Nederland BV tel: +31 (070) 415 9190 Treubstraat 7H fax: +31 (070) 415 9191 2288 EG Rijswijk http://www.citengineering.com Netherlands mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
