> I anecdotally see people moving towards Matlab and Python for automation these days,
For a while, NI provided tools in that space too. There was a product called LabWindows, which was centered around C, and a product called Hi-Q that I remember as being similar to Matlab. I assume that the non-LabView story these days is mostly a public API combined with other people's development tools. (At least that's what I'd hope it would be, given the expense of developing programming langauge tooling.)
> though its harder without the incredible amount hardware support provided by NI
Agreed... the hardware offerings are rather amazing and growing every day (even into some fairly specialized and high-end domains).
For a while, NI provided tools in that space too. There was a product called LabWindows, which was centered around C, and a product called Hi-Q that I remember as being similar to Matlab. I assume that the non-LabView story these days is mostly a public API combined with other people's development tools. (At least that's what I'd hope it would be, given the expense of developing programming langauge tooling.)
> though its harder without the incredible amount hardware support provided by NI
Agreed... the hardware offerings are rather amazing and growing every day (even into some fairly specialized and high-end domains).