Out in Front: February 1, 1996
Data Translation has revamped its DT VEE graphically programmed data-acquisition software. Although the company continues to base DT VEE on Hewlett-Packard’s HP VEE, you no longer must buy both HP VEE and DT VEE to obtain the full range of hardware the software support. As in the past, the HP version includes drivers for IEEE-488, RS-232C, VXIbus-based, and LAN-interfaced instruments. Now, however, you can enhance HP VEE to add a "smart-undo" editing function and to work with more than 50 ISA bus, PCI, and PCMCIA plug-ins that conform to Data Translation’s DT Open Layers protocol. To do this, you install the DT VPI visual-programming interface, thus, in effect, creating DT VEE.
Data Translation and HP have also introduced separate versions of DT VPI and HP VEE and for Windows 95 and Windows 3.1. The Windows 95 versions support the new operating system’s 32-bit features, such as pre-emptive multitasking and long file names. The updated Windows 3.1 versions also run under Windows 95 but don’t support its 32-bit features. Both the Windows 3.1 (V3.12 Revision 2) and the Windows 95 (V3.2) versions of HP VEE cost $995 and are available from HP and Data Translation. Among the features available for the first time in V3.12 Revision 2 and V3.2 are task-sensitive help and a graphics tool-kit option that lets you construct multidimensional plots and surfaces. The Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 versions of DT VPI cost $295 and are available from DT.
Although VEE is an interpreted language, it does not require the full development environment to run applications. To maintain the privacy of your code and to prevent users from making unauthorized modifications, you can buy a runtime-only version of HP VEE from either HP or Data Translation and a runtime-only version of DT VPI from Data Translation. Prices are the same as those for the full development environment. Developers who purchase the runtime version can distribute as many copies as they wish of all applications they develop.
-- by Dan Strassberg
Data Translation Inc, Marlborough, MA. (800) 525-8528
Hewlett-Packard Co, Santa Clara, CA. (800) 452-4844