LabVIEW is now used in engineering and science laboratories around the world. It has blasted off with the space shuttle to monitor possible leaks of hydrogen gas, monitored heart activity in human patients, analyzed ozone depletion in the Antarctic and descended to the depths of the ocean in US nuclear powered submarines. The Instrumentation Paradigm Much of the terminology used in LabVIEW comes from the instrumentation field. Engineers and scientists use all kinds of instruments to generate data and control processes. Already you have had practical experience using such workaday instruments as oscilloscopes, power supplies, function generators, timers, and multimeters.
Most instruments have a front panel and diagram.
The diagram window is where the actual program is written. The front panel contains various objects such as knobs, dials, switches and displays by which the user can interact with and control the instrument's functionality. These objects fall into two categories. Either they are controls allowing the user to set parameter values or they are indicators which typically display the control setting or the result of some measurement. In these conventional languages, one writes programs , which require inputs and generate outputs .