Happy anniversary, Info LabView
Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 5/1/2001
February 14th marked the 10th anniversary of Info LabView, an Internet mailing list run by and for LabView programmers. Info LabView is a shining example of how test-and-measurement engineers help each other.
Over the past 10 years, Info LabView's subscribers have helped each other solve thousands of programming problems. Programmers regularly exchange drivers for obscure test instruments and hold frank conversations about how well hardware products work, or don't work. Subscribers also report LabView bugs and help each other with workarounds.
Tom Coradeschi, who formed and maintains Info LabView, started the list when LabView ran on Macintosh computers only (National Instruments released LabView for Windows in 1992). Today, Info LabView keeps more than 2200 subscribers talking to each other. Although the vast majority of LabView programmers use Windows, Mac-specific questions still appear regularly.
Internet mailing lists also exist for other instrumentation programming languages such as Agilent VEE and National Instruments' Measurement Studio (formerly LabWindows/CVI). Although both receive postings each day, neither list's traffic approaches Info LabView's. On a typical weekday, 20 to 30 messages appear on Info LabView with a few messages appearing on weekends.
What makes Info LabView so successful? Part of that success comes from LabView's popularity. The rest comes from Info LabView's high "signal-to-noise ratio." Tom maintains that high ratio because he keeps marketers from posting nothing more than short product announcements. In fact, it's rare to see promotional announcements at all. Discussions usually stay specific to LabView programming, although some veer into general test-and-measurement topics.
The test-and-measurement community, and particularly the LabView community, owes Tom a debt of gratitude for his decade of work. Tom receives no compensation for his efforts. In fact, he doesn't even get to attend the annual NI Week conference. Tom works for the US Army, and he can't justify spending tax dollars on a trip to Austin for NI Week.
Congratulations to Tom and to all the Info LabView subscribers. They perform a valuable service for the test-and-measurement community. I look forward to your continued success helping each other. Info LabView, labview.pica.army.mil. T&MW
