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...... A compromise approach to custom software development and often inflexible off-the-shelf packages are commercially available, graphically oriented programming environments. These programming environments typically consist of a group of function blocks, each dedicated to a data acquisition or a data manipulation task. Drawing tools and libraries of standard symbols are also provided to create presentation screens. Users connect the function blocks to each other to create applications, and also fill-in-the-blanks within each block to configure the software for their specific application. Screens are then drawn using the provided drawing tools and library symbols. Finally, screens are linked to function block fields to create animation and live data displays. One popular program offers function blocks for communications, comparison, data conversion, digital signal processing, data I/O, logic, math, string manipulations, waveform generation and statistical calculations. Free-form blocks also are included. The power of this type of program is evident. Virtually any application can be addressed if enough system resources are available and if high-speed data acquisition is not a requirement. The line between these types of programs and non-custom, off-the-shelf programs is sometimes murky. Costs tend to be similar, although semi-custom software yields a wider range of functions for the money
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