Hot information on "NI's commitment to platform independance"
in info-LabVIEW
ナショナルインスツルメンツのPlatform Independenceへのコミットメント（原文）
- To: info-labview@pica.army.mil
- From: Jeff Kodosky <jeff.kodosky@natinst.com>
- Subject: National Instruments' Commitment to Platform Independence
- Date: 2 Apr 1999 15:54:43 GMT
- Organization: National Instruments, Austin, TX
- In a recent discussion thread concerning a platform-independent
LabVIEW,
- many of you have expressed concern that National Instruments is
not
- committed to a multi-platform solution. I'd like to allay those
concerns
- by describing what we've done recently, the issues I see and what
we're
- planning to do.
- First of all, I think it's great that you're giving us your feedback
on
- this subject and I encourage you to continue. We appreciate and
highly
- value your feedback and suggestions. We may not always respond
as quickly
- as desired (it took us ten years to finally implement UNDO!) but
I assure
- you we listen carefully and take your input very seriously. I
look at it
- as a vote of confidence in NI that you take the time to give us
feedback.
- Thank you.
- Secondly, let me state something that may or may not be obvious
but
- nevertheless is a fact of life. Windows 95/98/NT is our volume
platform
- and all others are niche platforms, including the Macintosh, although
it's
- the largest of the niches. I say this in order to set the proper
stage,
- without impugning the value, quality, or potential of any of the
- non-Windows platforms (I love my new 400MHz G3 and my daughters
love their
- new grape and blueberry iMacs; Dr. T likes the new iMac he bought,
too).
- Nor am I implying that "niche" is better or worse than "volume",
just
- different (as another point of reference, Microsoft is a large,
if not the
- largest, supplier of software for the Macintosh).
- Many of the concerns expressed in the discussion thread had to
do with
- features supported only on Windows such as Report Generation,
3D Graph, and
- DataSocket. What are you to infer from this? You can infer that
we are
- trying to exploit as much technology as we can as efficiently
as we can
- with our finite resources (the quickest way we could get these
features
- into LabVIEW was to use ActiveX, which is only available on Windows
at this
- time). What is not reasonable to assume is that this is ALL that
will be
- done. If ActiveX appears on the Mac these features would appear
in Mac
- LabVIEW instantaneously, otherwise, it will take us a little longer.
- I have some more comments about how we make tradeoffs in spending
our
- software development dollars but before that I'd like to mention
some of
- the things we've done recently and how they relate to niche versus
volume
- platforms.
- Recent Development History
- Today, LabVIEW 5.1 is available for Windows NT/98/95, Power Macintosh,
Sun
- Solaris 2, HP-UX 10X, Concurrent PowerMAX, and Linux. Few software
- packages today are available on such a broad range of platforms.
In
- addition, we continue to sell LabVIEW 5.0.1 for the older operating
systems
- Windows 3.1, 68K Macintosh, Solaris 1, and HP-UX 9X. We made the
decision
- to discontinue further development on these older systems in an
effort to
- maximize development efficiency on the modern OSs.
- One year ago, we introduced LabVIEW 5.0 with many platform-independent
new
- features including
- undo documentation tools
- graphical differencing menu bars
- the VI Server multithreading on the many platforms that support
it
- translation tools
- In addition, LabVIEW 5.1 offered many additional platform-independent
- features, including
- scalable front panels
- more than 100 new math functions
- built-in Smith charts and Polar plots
- programmatic pictures with the inclusion of the Picture Control
Toolkit
- sound acquisition and generation VIs
- built-in web server
- save for previous version functionality
- improvements to the application creation process
- In addition, in March, we announced that our entire line of 23
PCI plug-in
- boards are fully compatible with the new Power Macintosh G3 computers
- introduced in January 1999. As you may know, Apple Computer revealed
- changes late in the G3 development process that required National
- Instruments to immediately test all boards and update our driver
software.
- The result is that we now offer 13 data acquisition boards (ranging
from
- high-speed, simultaneous-sampling multifunction boards to simple
digital
- I/O boards); six boards for multiaxis motion control; three boards
for
- GPIB, VXI, and VME instrument control; and one board for image
acquisition.
- Philosophy on Future Development
- Like many Mac users, I'm disappointed by the decline in popularity
of the
- Mac in test and measurement and laboratory automation, especially
- considering where we came from with LabVIEW on the Mac. But looking
back
- isn't going to help us figure out what to do from here on out.
We need to
- have a strategy for addressing the portion of the market that's
on the
- niche platforms and it has to make business sense. What that means
is
- that, to first approximation (i.e., ignoring initial investment,
- opportunity costs, etc.), our R&D spending on a niche has to be
- proportional to the revenue.
- Actually, a more flexible business statement would be that our
R&D plus
- Marketing plus Sales spending has to be proportional to the revenue.
If we
- can make the assumption that customers on these platforms are
willing to
- visit our web site to get marketing info, make product recommendations,
and
- even to purchase products, we can justify redirecting the Marketing
and
- Sales dollars to R&D dollars and develop more products.
- What we do with the limited R&D dollars is what you help us with.
To date
- we've been using this R&D investment in two main areas: supporting
new
- versions of the operating system and designing new software (or
redesigning
- existing software) to be platform independent. We've been able
to keep up
- with the former but not with the latter (if/when we have sufficient
revenue
- to keep up with the latter we would also look at doing platform-specific
- development that exploits distinctive features of the niche platform).
To
- the extent that we're unable to keep up, we need help from you
to
- prioritize what we should do.
- We are in the process of setting up special areas on our web site
for
- platform specific interest groups. Once these pages are up (give
us a few
- weeks), please come visit these areas and help us figure out the
best way
- to spend our resources in supporting the Mac, SUN, Linux, and
other
- non-Windows platforms. We plan to use these sites as a forum in
which
- users can create a community to help guide development and drive
the
- success of these platforms. The more clever we can be here the
more we can
- accomplish and the more successful (and happier) we'll all be.
- The good news is that we are supporting, will continue to support,
and even
- extend support of non-Windows platforms as long as there's revenue
- available.
- Sincerely,
- Jeff Kodosky
- Vice President, Research and Development
- National Instruments
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