Too Many Updates to Run-Time Engine!

[Q7]

We are getting into trouble with all these run-time engine updates! Every time a new release or service pack come out we have to create a new installer with the new run-time engine and send it out onto all our customer's machines. It is not convenient to develop in 20 different versions of Labview and we like to keep our executables and updates recent.

Our instruments run on XPe with very little extra room for an additional RTE every 6 months. Asking the customer to uninstall old RTEs is painful as they are not supposed to go that deep inot our XPe build. 

I would like to see a modularized run-time engine where we don't need to update the whole thing every release. I know  with .NET updates are only necessary in 3-5 year increments. That would be much more acceptable IMHO

[Intaris]

Would it not make more sense to stick to the "older" version of LV for work on that customer's code?

I don't believe NI is forcing anyone to use the latest version on all projects (as tempting as it might be!).

[Q7]

You would think so, but when you have one engineer writing updates to code for two hundred instruments in the field it is nice to have only one version of software.

We could stick with LV 7 but would be missing the chance to add a huge amount of improved functionality. Sticking with 8.6 would have been great except every time I build an executable with class vis in it I end up with 3 additional folders of vis that I have to send out with the executable! 

Yes, it would be fine to stick with one version of Labview for all our instruments. It would not be fine to have six different versions on various instruments around the world and even in the same customer laboratories. 

If we do settle on LV2009 for our instruments and stay with it what do we do when the service pack comes out to fix all the bugs? Now we have to wait for LV2010 to arrive so we know LV2009 is finished??

Heres thequestion NI should be interested in: Why would we continue to subscribe to LabView's Developer Subscription if we are going to use LV2009 for the next 10 years?

[Intaris]

This is another reason why I am always pleading for a LTS version of LabVIEW parallel to the "cutting edge" version.

A version which receives no new features but benefits from bug fixes.  NI could release a new LTS (long term support) version every 3 to 5 years for people who want a stable base to build on.

At the end of the day, your preference for features versus maintainability is a personal one.  I recently moved to LV 8.20 (and then rapidly to 8.2.1) after coding in 6.1 for a good 7 or 8 years.

[JackDunaway]

Consider my previous post as a viable solution. Also, the version freeze is a viable solution - only internally update to the latest dev package when you see things you NEED (like the bangload of things we got in 2009!!!).

But still, we feel your pain...

[Q7]

Thanks mechelecengr, I gave that post of your Kudos just today. I agree that 2009 is such a major improvement that we can be happy here for a while...so long as there aren't a buch of issues that require a service pack in 4 months!

[Darren]

Any idea that has received less than 2 kudos within 2 years after posting will be automatically declined.