Software tools - The SAS Workshops Blog (Page 2)

February 2021 Webinar

LabVIEW Shortcuts – Don’t waste time wiring… February 24th, 10:00am MT We are fortunate to have Stefan Lemmens join us in February. He is going to give a presentation on all the various types of LabVIEW Shortcuts. We are always looking for ways to be more efficient. These tips

Software tools , Linux , Resources

Zsh

Oh My ZSH If you follow this blog, you will know that I am a huge fan of the Maintainable podcast by Robby Russell. It contains lots of great information about working with Legacy Code and how to write code so that you avoid a lot of the issues with

How to , Software tools

Getting Started with 3-D Printing

I did a job a few years ago for a mining company. We were building a tester to test soil samples. I was amazed that many of the parts for the tester were 3-d printed. I thought it was pretty cool technology. At the time I thought it could be

Unit Testing , Software tools , RT

Unit Testing on Real Time Targets

I’ve written a lot previously on unit testing and the value of unit tests. I try very hard to write unit tests for all my software and i try to use Test Driven Development (TDD) as much as I can. It’s not always easy. I just started a

Software tools

Don't Waste Time Manually Writing Documentation

We all know documentation is important. Our software will likely need to be updated and upgraded at some point, oftentimes by another person who is unfamiliar with it. Even if we are the ones doing the updates we may not remember all the important details. That is why documentation is

Software tools

Camtasia

I have been working on putting together some prerecorded online classes. I have been using Camtasia and Snagit a lot lately, so I thought I would do a quick writeup on them. I first discovered these tools when doing some videos for NI. That is what they had recommended for

Continuous Integration , Software tools , DevOps

What is Docker?

I recently posted a book review for a book about learning Docker. I immediately got some feedback that I did not do a great job of explaining exactly what Docker is. This post is going to be a brief explanation of exactly what Docker is and particularly how it compares

How to , Software tools

Enhanced State Diagram Editor

I was talking to Fab a while ago and she put me onto the Enhanced State Diagram editor. Apparently it is one of Jeff K’s pet projects. It is a way to create a state machine by drawing the diagram in a special editor that automatically generates the LabVIEW

SCC , Software tools , How to

Git Tips For Beginners

Git is a great source code control tool, but it is not known for being user friendly. It’s actually a shame. The way in which git stores and references content is incredibly elegant, but it’s UI seems more of an afterthought. The command structure is not at all

Software tools , Resources

TDMS Headers

Our TDMS Headers has officially been published to the NI Tools Network. It makes it easier to read and write cluster of data as properties for tdms files. Simply pass it a cluster and it does the rest. Check it out on the NI Tools Network Check it out the

SCC , Software tools

Gitflow the easy way

You may have heard of Gitflow. It was first proposed here nearly 10 years ago. If you are like me, when I first saw it, I was a little overwhelmed. I certainly got the idea of making use of git’s powerful branching model, and not simply developing in master.

How to , Software tools , Unit Testing

Caraya Review

Caraya is a popular Unit Testing solution from JKI. Compared to JKI VI Tester, Caraya seems to be newer and better supported. In fact while conducting this review I found a small bug. I reported it and it was fixed within 24 hours. The Caraya paradigm is different from the

How to , Software tools , Unit Testing

Insta Coverage

I first heard about InstaCoverage at NI Week 2018. I was part of a panel discussing Unit Testing. Peter Bokor gave a brief presentation right before the panel started on a new unit testing tool IncQuiry Labs had created called InstaCoverage. He really emphasized the code coverage calculation. This is

How to , Software tools , Unit Testing

AST Unit Tester Review

I recently did a review of JKI VI Tester. While it is my goto unit testing tool, there are several issues with it: * You have to be an admin to install it. * It adds a ton of dependencies to your project. * If you have a project that has tests in

How to , Software tools , Unit Testing

Using JKI VI Tester

If you have been following my posts, you will know that I am a big fan of JKI VITester. It is my goto Unit Tester. Why? Mostly because it is an implementation of xUnitStyle testing, which means that I can easily use all of the great patterns outlined in xUnit

Software tools , Frameworks , OOP

Events for UI Actor Indicators

Allen Smith and I have been working on a side project we called Events for UI Actor Indicators for a couple months (we’ve both been busy lately). It started with a discussion at a CLA summit in Austin. That prompted Allen to come up with an idea and then

Software tools

How to use VIPM effectively

My friend Matt Richardson recently suggested I write a post about how I use packages in my workflow, particularly how I use VIPM. This is my response. Matt, hopefully I answered all your questions. What is VIPM? VIPM stands for VI package manager. It is a free tool made by

Software tools

AF Tester Now On GitLab

At the recent CLA Summit, there was a lot of talk about collaboration particularly about open source projects hosted on sites such as GitLab. I’m proud to announce that the AF Tester project that I’ve showcased in some of my recent presentations is now available on GitLab as

How to , Software tools , Resources

Using Virtual Machines Part 2

This is second of a 2 part series on using Virtual Machines for LabVIEW development. You can check out part 1 here. Part 1 discusses why we use virtual machines. This article will discuss a little more of the how. I’m not going to give away all my secrets,

How to , Resources , Software tools

Using Virtual Machines Part 1

My friend Peter Davis recently asked if I could do a blog post how we use virtual machines (VMs) for LabVIEW development. Before I go into too much detail, I do want to say that I learned a lot of what I know about VMs from John Giannangeli of Bolder

Conferences , Software tools

Actor Tester

Here is the video from my recent presentation in Madrid. Enjoy. Thanks to Jeffery Habbet for the recording.

Software tools , How to

Finding LabVIEW Version of a File

Since I do consulting, I often end up inheriting code. Often I get called in because someone had hired a LabVIEW developer to write some code for them and then the LabVIEW developer had disappeared, either retired or moved, or got another job or something similar. Luckily they usually leave

Software tools

Introducing Automatic Version Manager (AVM) for LabVIEW

Automatic Version Manager (AVM) for LabVIEW This video is a demo of some software I wrote called Automatic Version Manager for LabVIEW. AVM is a solution for dealing with multiple versions of LabVIEW installed on the same computer. If you have ever used multiple versions of LabVIEW on the same

How to , Software tools

Creating CHM Help Files

Help Files If you are not creating help files for your applications, you should seriously consider it. How many times have you written an application and then one of the users comes to ask you how to do perform some task in the software? When I was writing software for

How to , Software tools

Alternative to LabVIEW's Installer Builder

Most people who develop software in LabVIEW are familiar with the installer build process from within LabVIEW. If you haven’t built an installer from within LabVIEW, it is similar to building an executable. The first step is to build your executable. Next you right click on Build Specifications in