Re: [BLACKBOX] Blackbox mail list archive

From: [at]} <Wojtek>
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:28:05 -0500

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>> LabView drew me insane on Pentium as well. LabView poses an interesting
>> question. If it is so bad as I experienced myself, then why is it so
>> popular?
> I suspect LabView is for hardware technicians

According to my observations, LabView enables to make rapid apparent
progress at the cost of very little work. LabView GUI builder allows to
quickly assemble impressive GUIs which are then successfully presented at
various meetings, design reviews, etc. A spirited discussion over such a
GUI conveys impression of rapid progress, creativity, and competence of
the engineer. The substance behind the GUI is never discussed, because
some attendees (esp. managers) are neither competent nor interested in
technical details, while other attendees (engineers) play the same kind of
the game.

One day, after many months of apparent progress, the application is
supposed to run. It poses a problem, because in fact the LabView GUI is an
empty facade with nothing behind to make it run. In the institution which
I am basing these remarks on, this problem was typically handled by hiring
a summer student who would sweat over filling in the empty space. At the
end of the summer the student would gain "valuable educational
experience", the engineer would collect credit, and the management would
be happy.

These remarks can possibly shed some light on the troubling question why
BlackBox was never a market success on par with LabView, despite its
internal strength. In my opinion it is so, because BlackBox is an exact
opposite to a successful corporate product. BlackBox focuses on the
substance, while LabView focuses on creating impression. In the corporate
world substance matters very little, while impressions are everything.

That's why we on this mailing list are who we are. We all focus on the
substance of our work.

Just my 2 cents of cynicism, as usual.

W.

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Received on Sat Feb 18 2012 - 17:28:05 UTC