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RE: Reading NI TDMS files


From: Allen.Windhorn
Subject: RE: Reading NI TDMS files
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:29:34 -0600

 

-----Original Message-----
From: John W. Eaton [mailto:address@hidden 

| National Instruments' Labview produces files in their semi-proprietary

| TDMS format.

> How is it "semi" proprietary?

The format itself is published, or at least known 
<http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3676>, but AFAIK nobody
else uses it.  The tools they have written to manage it are NI's
property, I think.

| They provide on their website a DLL and other files to read this 
| format in C++.

> So these DLLs are binary-only?  In that case, I think linking them
> with Octave [and distributing the result] would be in violation of
> the terms of the GPL.

Maybe someone has written GPL code that is equivalent in function?
Or how about using them through DAO or OLE or something?  

| Has anyone adapted these to work with Octave?
| I would like to read the files directly into Octave instead of going 
| through a translation step.

> If you want to avoid the license issues, then write a standalone
> program that uses the DLLs to translate into a format that Octave
> can read.  Then have Octave run that program as a separate process
> to do the translation, then read the resulting data.

We already have that program, though it is slow.  Probably we will
continue to batch-process the files then.

> A better solution might be to avoid proprietary data formats, or
> reverse-engineer the current format so that some free (as in speech)
> tools can be developed to read and write the format.

I've asked that the program be modified to produce HDF5 format, but
I'm not going to hold my breath.  Might wind up being too slow anyway.

Thanks for your advice.

Regards,
Allen




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