WUELUG11 was now the third meeting to take place completely digitally. This of course meant we had many more fun opportunities – such as inviting Danielle Jobe to showcase Python integration with LabVIEW! The day after WUELUG11, DSH Workshops was invited to LabVIEW Live, hosted by G Systems and the Dallas LabVIEW User Group.
WUELUG11
Starting the user group was a situation report for the WUELAMP project by Julian Lange from Siemens. You can read more about that in the article for the last meeting. If you’d like to jump right in and help with its development, the GitLab repo is right here.
Afterwards came our headliner presentation; Dani walked us through integrating Python nodes into your LabVIEW code. She demonstrated many use-cases, from printing “Hello World!” to using Haar cascades for facial recognition. If you would like to test it yourself, she created a GitHub repo just for that!
Continuing on with the Python theme, it was Manu’s turn to present. He showcased how one can create visually-pleasing Matplotlib diagrams from LabVIEW. This is also publicly available for you to try out. The default LabVIEW graphs can often seem quite outdated and Matplotlib is steadily becoming an industry standard, so this project is rather promising!
Up next was an introduction to the Desktop Execution Trace Toolkit from Thomas Henkel. This program collects trace data from running LabVIEW applications and displays them in an easily browsable format. This helps you to efficiently analyse, debug and optimise applications.
Diverting from the presentation format, we then had an informal round table discussion about NI certifications. We discussed the available possibilities and the participants could talk about their personal aspirations.
LabVIEW Live
The day after WUELUG11, DSH Workshops was invited to LabVIEW Live, hosted by G Systems and the Dallas LabVIEW User Group.
For NIWeek 2020, Brian Powell submitted a topic named “Inheriting a Mess of LabVIEW”, about how not to panic when you inherit badly written/documented/tested code. For GDevCon, he submitted a corollary presentation called “Leaving a Worthy Inheritance”, about leaving things better for those who come after you. (This is sometimes a future you, but often not.) Since both events were cancelled, this presentation combined the two. Based on our real-world experience, we shared ways to turn panic into a followable process and escape the mess you’ve inherited.
In summation
Our experience with remote meetings is really showing! WUELUG11 went completely without any technical hitches or glitches. Unfortunately of course, the personal side was lacking – perhaps we should incorporate baking pizza together next time? 🙂
If you want to watch or rewatch the meeting, you can find the video on our YouTube channel.