Choosing Your Programming Methodology; Choosing A Method To Access The Ni-488.2 Driver; Ni-488.2 Language Interfaces; Direct Entry Access - National Instruments NI-488.2 User Manual

Choosing Your Programming Methodology

Choosing a Method to Access the NI-488.2 Driver

© National Instruments Corporation
For advanced interactive communication with GPIB instruments, use the
Interactive Control utility, as follows:
1. Select Start»Programs»National Instruments NI-488.2»Explore
GPIB to start Measurement & Automation Explorer.
2. Expand the Devices and Interfaces directory by clicking on the + next
to the folder.
3. Right-click on your GPIB interface and select Interactive Control
from the drop-down menu that appears.
4. At the command prompt, type NI-488.2 API calls to communicate
interactively with the your instrument. For example, you might use
, ,
ibdev ibclr ibwrt
To view the online help for Interactive Control, type
Control command prompt. For more information, refer to Chapter 6,
Interactive Control Utility.
Based on your development environment, you can select a method for
accessing the driver, and based on your NI-488.2 programming needs, you
can choose how to use the NI-488.2 API.
Applications can access the NI-488.2 dynamic link library (DLL),
, either by using an NI-488.2 language interface or by direct
gpib-32.dll
access.

NI-488.2 Language Interfaces

You can use a language interface if your program is written in Microsoft
Visual C/C++ (2.0 or later), Borland C/C++ (4.0 or later), or Microsoft
Visual Basic (4.0 or later). Otherwise, you must access
directly.

Direct Entry Access

You can access the DLL directly from any programming environment that
allows you to request addresses of variables and functions that a DLL
exports.
gpib-32.dll
all the NI-488.2 calls.
Chapter 3
, , and
ibrd ibonl
exports pointers to each of the global variables and
3-3
Developing Your NI-488.2 Application
.
at the Interactive
help
gpib-32.dll
NI-488.2 User Manual for Windows