# LabWindows/CVI

LabWindows/CVI (CVI is short for C for Virtual Instrumentation) is an ANSI C programming environment for test and measurement developed by National Instruments. The program was originally released as LabWindows for DOS in 1987, but was soon revisioned (and renamed) for the Microsoft Windows platform. The current version of LabWindows/CVI (commonly referred to as CVI) is 2020.
LabWindows/CVI uses the same libraries and data-acquisition modules as the better known National Instrument product LabVIEW and is thus highly compatible with it.
LabVIEW is targeted more at domain experts and scientists, and CVI more towards software engineers that are more comfortable with text-based linear languages such as C.

## Release history

Starting with LabWindows/CVI 8.0, major versions are released around the first week of August, to coincide with the annual National Instruments conference NI Week, and followed by a bug-fix release the following February.
In 2009, National Instruments started to name the releases after the year in which they are released. The bugfix is called a Service Pack (for instance, the 2009 Service Pack 1 release was published in February 2010).
| Name/version | Build number | Date | Operating system support and notes |
| The LabWindows/CVI project begins | | 1987 |
| LabWindows/CVI 1.0 | | Jan 1989 | DOS |
| LabWindows/CVI 2.0 | | Apr 1991 | DOS. GUI Tools and Memory Extender |
| LabWindows/CVI 3.0 | | Mar 1994 | DOS, Windows 3.1, and Solaris |
| LabWindows/CVI 3.1 | | Jul 1995 | generate codes automatically |
| LabWindows/CVI 3.1.1 | | 1995 | first release with "application builder" capability |
| LabWindows/CVI 4.0 | | May 1996 | External C/C++ compiler compatibility |
| LabWindows/CVI 4.0.1 | | Aug 1996 |
| LabWindows/CVI 5.0 | | Feb 1998 | support for VXI and IVI |
| LabWindows/CVI 5.5 | | Feb 2000 | Multithreaded libraries, debugging |
| LabWindows/CVI 6.0 | | Oct 2001 | ActiveX support, improved presentation |
| LabWindows/CVI 7.0 | | Jul 2003 | use Workspace |
| LabWindows/CVI 7.1 | | Sep 2004 | completion automatically |
| LabWindows/CVI 8.0 | | Oct 2005 | support for .NET assemblies |
| LabWindows/CVI 8.0.1 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 8.1 | | 2006 |
| LabWindows/CVI 8.1.1 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 8.5 | | 2007 |
| LabWindows/CVI 8.5.1 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 9.0 | | 2008 | ANSI C99 support |
| LabWindows/CVI 9.0.1 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 2009 | 9.1 | 2009 | create 64-bit applications |
| LabWindows/CVI 2009 SP1 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 2010 | 10.0 | 2010 | Linux support |
| LabWindows/CVI 2010 SP1 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 2012 | 12.0 | 2012 |
| LabWindows/CVI 2012 SP1 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 2013 | 13.0 | 2013 | Changed compiler to Clang 2.9. New debugger running in its own process. |
| LabWindows/CVI 2013 SP1 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 2013 SP2 | | |
| LabWindows/CVI 2015 | 15.0 | 2015 | upgrade to Clang 3.3 |
| LabWindows/CVI 2015 SP1 | 15.1 | 2016 |
| LabWindows/CVI 2017 | 17.0 | 2017 | Tracepoints, word/semantic highlighting, thread-specific breakpoints, comment/uncomment |
| LabWindows/CVI 2019 | 19.0 | May 2019 | Updates to Source Code Editor: zooming, code snippets, multi-line edits |
| LabWindows/CVI 2020 | 20.0 | Sep 2020 | UTF-8 support |