National Instruments VXI-1394 - Manual (Page 14)

Chapter 1 Introduction
© National Instruments Corporation 1-5 VXI-1394 User Manual for Windows
LabVIEW is an easy-to-use, graphical programming environment you can
use to acquire data from thousands of different instruments, including
IEEE 488.2 devices, VXI devices, serial devices, PLCs, and plug-in data
acquisition boards. After you have acquired raw data, you can convert it
into meaningful results using the powerful data analysis routines in
LabVIEW. LabVIEW also comes with hundreds of instrument drivers,
which dramatically reduce software development time, because you do not
have to spend time programming the low-level control of each instrument.
Measurement Studio allows you to choose from standard environments
such as Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual Studio .NET
to create your application, using tools specific for each language. With
Measurement Studio, you can write programs quickly and easily and
modify them as your needs change.
LabWindows/CVI is an interactive ANSI C programming
environment designed for building virtual instrument applications.
LabWindows/CVI delivers a drag-and-drop editor for building user
interfaces, a complete ANSI C environment for building your test program
logic, and a collection of automated code generation tools, as well as
utilities for building automated test systems, monitoring applications,
or laboratory experiments.
To use any of these application programs, install them before the
NI-VISA/NI-VXI software installation. LabVIEW, Measurement Studio,
and LabWindows/CVI integrate the VXI and VISA libraries that are
required to support your VXI-1394. You also get hundreds of complete
instrument drivers, which are modular, source-code programs that handle
the communication with your instrument to speed your application
development.