A Software Engineering Approach to LabVIEW [Paperback]

Jon Conway (Author), Steve Watts (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130093653 | ISBN-13: 978-0130093653 | Publication Date: May 15, 2003 | Edition: 1

A Software Engineering Approach to LabVIEW, by working programmers Jon Conway and Steve Watts, applies for the first time the techniques and principles of software design to LabVIEW programming. The LCOD technique designs flexibility into applications, making them more robust and much more easily adaptable to changes, even in large, industrial applications. Complete with examples and working code.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Create more robust, more flexible LabVIEW applications—through software design principles!

Writing LabVIEW software to perform a complex task is never easy—especially when those last-minute feature requests cause a complexity explosion in your system, forcing you to rework much of your code! Jon Conway and Steve Watts offer a better solution: LCOD-LabVIEW Component Oriented Design—which, for the first time, applies the theories and principles of software design to LabVIEW programming. The material is presented in a lighthearted, engaging manner that makes learning enjoyable, even if you're not a computer scientist.

• LCOD software engineering techniques make your software more robust and better able to handle complexity—by making it simpler! Even large, industrial-grade applications become manageable.
• Design to embrace flexibility first, making changes and bug fixes much less painful
• Pragmatic discussion of the authors' tried and tested techniques, written by—and for—working programmers
• Covers design principles; LCOD overview, implementation, and complementary techniques; engineering essentials; style issues; and more
• Complete with practical advice on requirements gathering, prototyping, user interface design, and rich with examples
• Work through an example LCOD project (all code included on companion Web site) to tie the lessons together

This book is intended for test engineers, system integrators, electronics engineers, software engineers, and other intermediate to advanced LabVIEW programmers. None of the methods discussed are complex, so users can benefit as soon as they are proficient with the syntax of LabVIEW.Go to the companion Web site located at http://author.phptr.com/watts/ for full source code and book updates.

About the Author

JON CONWAY has 20 years' experience in writing software, with half of that in LabVIEW. His fieldsof expertise include real time, robotics, databases, DAQ, DSP, and multiple software languages andoperating systems; his idea for LCOD arose from his experience gained working on complex softwareprojects. Jon is a partner in Structured Software Design Consultants of Hampshire, UK.

STEVE WATTS has 15 years of experience in writing test software, and has been programming inLabVIEW for 6 years. His areas of expertise include OOD, the Yourdon methodology, CASE tools,electronics, lasers, switching system design, DAQ, statistical process control, databases, userinterface design, software engineering, as well as a variety of programming languages. Steve is apartner in Structured Software Design Consultants of Hampshire, UK.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (May 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130093653
• ISBN-13: 978-0130093653
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #653,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #58 in Books > Science & Math > Experiments, Instruments & Measurement > Scientific Instruments

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What's wrong with the printing?, July 11, 2005

By 

book reader "book reader" (Secret City, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Software Engineering Approach to LabVIEW (Paperback)

This book has the poorest print quality and picture quality that one could hope to find. I have even contacted the printer who says there is nothing they can do and Amazon won't even think about exchanging the book because it has been a while since I purchased it, but who reads engineering books the minute they hit your door?

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Figures in book are unreadable, February 24, 2006

By 

Robert W. Reed (Stroudsburg, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Software Engineering Approach to LabVIEW (Paperback)

The book is very well written but the reproduction is horrid. Very few of the figures are readable. It looks like a particularly bad reproduction on a poorly tuned copier. Prentice Hall should refund my money except they refuse to even acknowledge my complaint. I have since found out from a LabVIEW user group that except for an early printing, all of the books are very poorly printed. Unfortunately, the figures contain the most important information. I really wish I could get a clean copy. DO NOT BUY THE BOOK unless you first see the figures!!!! Its vertually useless without readable figures!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars figures are bad, but everything is also online!, March 7, 2006

By 

James Liao (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Software Engineering Approach to LabVIEW (Paperback)

This book was a quick read, rather short. About half of the book goes over actual programming concepts, and the other half goes over a long design example scenario. The book is written in a fun engaging way, but in my mind the book costs a little too much for such a short read.

Coming in, I was an intermediate Labview user, and the book has opened my eyes to some better ways to program.

For those of you complaining about the quality of the figures, visit the website at authors.phptr.com/watts. Note that there is a typo in the URL on the back cover!