Patent ID: 8640027

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for configuring a hardware device, the method comprising: utilizing a computer to perform: displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) in a prototyping environment that provides access to a set of operations, wherein the prototyping environment enables the user to create prototypes without requiring the user to write code in a programming language; receiving user input to the GUI specifying a prototype by selecting a sequence of operations from the set of operations, wherein the prototype comprises the specified sequence of operations, and wherein the prototype does not include programming code; automatically generating a graphical program based on the prototype, wherein, when executed, the graphical program implements functionality specified by the prototype, wherein the graphical program comprises graphical source code in the form of a plurality of interconnected nodes which visually indicate the functionality of the graphical program, wherein said automatically generating the graphical program based on the prototype comprises automatically including the nodes in the graphical program without direct user input selecting and interconnecting the nodes during said generating; and configuring the hardware device to execute at least a portion of the generated graphical program by deploying the at least a portion of the graphical program to the hardware device, wherein said configuring comprises configuring the hardware device to implement at least a portion of the specified sequence of operations.